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semperintrepida · 4 years

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In the Sanctuary of Lies

The night of her first death, it was the smell that led her to the bodies piled high at the foot of the cliff. Putrid and oppressive, it nearly forced her to her knees, and even the rain — a cold, hard rain that turned the stone around her an oily black — couldn't wash it out of the air. But she could not stop, not even to retch. She had to find them. Both of them.

She stumbled in the dark, threw her arms out and felt her hands sink into rotting ooze. She looked back at her feet and saw the cooling body of the Elder priest, his head cracked open across the rocks like a bloody egg.

Ahead of her, rain pooled in the upturned cup of an infant's skull. A flash of lightning turned the bone stark white against grey, followed moments later by a thunderclap that left her ears ringing with Zeus's anger. She scrambled on hands and knees across a table set with a feast for vultures, surrounded by stone and bones and those long dead.

But no Kassandra. No Alexios. She couldn't find them.

Her children. Her babies.

Her heart constricted in her chest, squeezing the life out of the hope that had driven her to search the bottom of the cliff. She couldn't find them. They were gone. They were—

Shouts in the distance. The Elders, looking for her after she'd torn herself from their grasping hands, away from them and away from Ni— No. Her mind put a blank where his name had been. The time to hate was later.

She almost missed the whimper, barely louder than the rain and the strangled beats of her heart. Where? Her eyes swept the dark rocks around her, the piles of white bones up ahead, and then the world went white with another lightning bolt and she saw a white shape in a jumbled nest of rib bones. Her heart boomed with the thunder, and she crawled to the bones and brushed her fingers against a blanket she had touched a thousand times.

Alexios. She drew his face to her cheek and felt a whisper of breath, but his skin was so, so cold and he hardly moved.

More shouting. Close now, along with the orange glow of torches.

Kassandra was here, somewhere on these stones, someplace in the dark, but if she stayed and kept looking, the Elders would find her and Alexios, and they'd kill him for sure. Lose one or lose both. Her choice to make.

She tucked Alexios against her bosom and hurried away from the cliff, and part of her soul left her body and died there on those dark stones, the part that had entwined itself around her daughter the moment she knew the gods had blessed her with a child. She had done the unforgivable by giving up on her daughter, and one day she would stand before the gods and answer for it.

The forest underbrush tore at her skirt, and she ducked her head under tree limbs and climbed over fallen trunks. Tree bark and branches scraped her skin but she didn't feel pain. She was soaked through but she didn't feel cold. The rain continued to fall in sheets, but the lightning storm faded along with the shouts of those who pursued her.

She didn't know how she made her way down from the mountain through that dark forest, only that there were lights in the distance ahead, and she recognized them as Pitana, the helot village on the far outskirts of Sparta.

Alexios did not stir, and he was still so cold that despite her fears of injuring him further, she paused and unwrapped him from his blanket and tucked him inside her dress next to her skin. No one in Sparta was skilled enough to help him, even if they were willing to disobey the Elders. The healers in Argolis were her only option, she realized, choking back despair as she calculated the distance. Days away by foot. Faster by horse, if she had one.

If. She set her jaw and moved as swiftly as she could across the muddy wheat fields that ringed the village, avoiding the huts and hovels until she reached the road to Sparta. She'd be safe on the roads as long as she stayed ahead of the messengers of the priests, but she could not risk running into any soldiers in the city. Her home was lost to her now. All she had left in the world was Alexios.

She kept moving, coming to the crossroads where the northern and eastern roads met. There was a kapeleion here, she knew, a squat building from which firelight and drunken laughter escaped. And just outside, a few horses picketed at the fence. She swallowed hard, straightened her shoulders, and walked up to a sturdy-looking gelding. Heart pounding, she untied his lead, swung herself onto the saddle with Alexios cradled against her, and rode off into the night. King Leonidas's daughter Myrrine, reduced to a common thief.

She rode the horse harder than she had any right to, until his flanks were coated in lather and he could no longer keep up a gallop, and as the sun rose, she stopped at the river on the border with Argolis and let him drink deep while she cradled Alexios in her arms.

He was dying.

She mounted the horse, urged him forward. The city of Argos up the road, help up ahead, and Alexios against her breast, so very, very, still.

.oOo.

It seemed to Kassandra that all roads in Argolis pointed to the clinic of Hippokrates of Argos, nestled as it was in the foothills above the city. The clouds wrapped the mountaintops in fluffy grey wool, and it had rained steadily all morning, foul weather leading to foul moods.

Raised voices greeted her at the clinic's doorstep. An older woman, sharply berating a young man. "Look, you insignificant peon. Tell me where he is, or by Hera I'll burn this clinic to the ground with you in it!"

He raised his hands, trying to placate her. "I already told you what I know."

"If Hippokrates thinks he can disrupt social order to make himself into a demigod of healing, perhaps the gods themselves will have their revenge." The woman took a step towards him, and Kassandra could see her arm coiling back, ready to strike.

Kassandra was already stepping into the frame. "Back away from the boy. Slowly," she said.

Now the woman's fury focused on her. "Who dares threaten the Priestess of Hera?"

"Me." Kassandra crossed her arms and moved in close, close enough to emphasize just how far down she had to look to stare into the woman's eyes. "Now step back."

The woman narrowed her eyes, zealot eyes that danced at the edge of madness, and for a moment Kassandra thought she might try something stupid. But then she drew herself up with wounded dignity and said to the young man, "It seems the gods wish me to grant you and your master another chance. Tell Hippokrates that if he doesn't make a public show of respect to the gods, I'll raise an army of believers against him. And if he can't think of a suitable offering, his head will do." Then she pushed her way between them and stormed off.

By the gods, were all priestesses of Hera like this?

"Thank Asklepios she's gone," the young man said. "I thought she was going to kill me this time."

"Who are you, and what was all that about?" Kassandra asked.

"I'm Sostratos," he said. "Chrysis has accused my master Hippokrates of impiety."

"Is he?"

"He believes that beyond praying, people can take their health into their own hands and make themselves well."

That seemed reasonable. After all, it was easier to stab someone with her spear than wait for one of Zeus's thunderbolts to strike them down for her. "Fascinating. Can I speak with him?"

"I'm sorry, he isn't here."

"Then where can I find him?"

"He's gone to Hera's Watch to help the sick there." She could find him if she traveled to the southeast and looked for the end of a long line of desperate people. And did she mind delivering these medical supplies that he'd forgotten in his haste?

When it came to finding her mother, nothing would ever be simple.

She tied the bag of supplies to the back of her saddle and mounted Phobos. Above her stretched woolly skies in every direction. It would be a cold, wet ride to Hera's Watch.

.oOo.

The first person Myrrine encountered in Argos took one look at Alexios and pointed her to Hippokrates's clinic, as did the second person, and the next. She had never been to Argos, and needed to keep asking the way through the blurry maze of houses and temples that surrounded her.

Right at the walnut tree. Left at the statue of Apollo. Follow the fence up the hill to the path through the laurel grove. She slumped forward, weary from riding all night, her horse valiantly keeping up a trot. He'd given her everything he could and still she asked for more.

They left the canopy of laurels and entered a cluster of low buildings with stucco walls, the grounds swept and tidy.

A young man emerged from the building at the sound of hoofbeats in the courtyard, his eyes widening as he caught sight of her. A golden pendant of a snake wrapped around a rod hung from his neck, the sign of the priests of Asklepios, and the last of her energy drained out of her as she realized she had made it to the clinic. She sagged bonelessly in the saddle, and he hurried to her, his hands gentle as he helped her to the ground.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She held Alexios out to him. "My son," was all she could say before her throat closed around the rest of her words.

A glance at the infant in his arms was enough to cause him to hurry. "Come in, come in," he said, leading her into the building. A woman stood in the corner, tending a brazier. "Ortygia, take care of this woman, please." Then he retreated to a back room, carrying Alexios away from her sight.

Her heart raced and she slipped towards panic, but the woman suddenly appeared at her side, gently taking her by the elbow and preventing her from following him. "You're freezing," the woman said. "Come and sit."

Myrrine let herself be guided to a bench next to a burning brazier. Its warmth seemed far away. Her exhaustion made everything feel cold and distant, inert like a pile of ashes. She wanted to sleep and not wake up until Alexios was whole again.

She felt a warm cup being pressed into her hands. "Drink this." Hot wine and herbs. She sipped, tasting nothing. That wasn't right. Sipped again. Nothing. She could no longer trust her senses. The heat from the wine crawled down her chest and thawed something inside, and the meltwater began leaking from her. She closed her eyes against the tears. No. Not now.

After some time, Hippokrates emerged from the back room carrying Alexios, and she knew in an instant that he would not bring her good news. He knelt before her and placed a hand on her knee. "Your son..." His voice wavered, and he shook his head. "This is beyond my abilities as a healer."

She could die kneeling in the middle of a field of ashes, or she could dig, dig down into those cinders. She heard her own voice, steady as it said, "If you can't save him, tell me who can." Warmth under her hands, the smallest embers.

"He's too—"

Embers to flame, her voice raising. "Tell me who can!"

Her tone made him flinch. "The priests at the Sanctuary of Asklepios." He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time.

"How do I get there?"

He told her. Placed Alexios into her arms. Helped her to her feet, wrapped her in a blanket, and brought her to her horse. She took up the reins, turned the horse towards the road that led to the Sanctuary, and heard him call out behind her, "Gods be with you both."

Which gods? The ones who told the Oracle in Delphi that Alexios would bring about the downfall of Sparta, thus condemning him to be thrown from a cliff?

There were no gods left for her to trust.

.oOo.

Kassandra stared at the dead man in the cot and shook her head in frustration. All that effort in Fort Tiryns — sneaking past the soldiers, finding the garrison's physician, and bringing him back to Hippokrates — had amounted to nothing.

"I'm sorry for the delay, Hippokrates," Dymas said. "Kassandra helped me save my own patient first."

She'd had to choose: wait for Dymas to finish his surgery, or force him to come with her unwillingly. She'd decided to wait, and it had been the same as picking one life over another. Dymas's patient had survived. This man didn't.

"But why are you here?" Hippokrates asked. "I only needed my notes."

"They were burned in an attack, but fortunately, I have them memorized." Dymas tapped a finger against his temple. "And Kassandra insisted I come with her."

Hippokrates turned to her. "Did you kill anyone to bring Dymas here?"

Anyone? Did he mean the entire fort full of soldiers he'd asked her to sneak into? It took effort to keep her voice neutral. "No." She'd slipped past every sentry without any of them raising an alarm, and she'd done it as quickly as she could. It hadn't been enough.

Hippokrates rested a hand on Dymas's shoulder. "All of us are in the business of making tough decisions. You saved one soul today, and many others to come."

Dymas nodded. "If we're finished here, I'll write down what I remember of your notes."

Kassandra watched him hurry off, then said to Hippokrates, "I won't keep you from your work any longer, doctor. I'll go ask the priests at the Sanctuary about the woman I seek."

He gestured for her to follow and said, "Come with me. You've had a busy day."

They walked inside a large tent, its interior crowded with tables of medical equipment and racks of herbs. It smelled faintly of spices she couldn't place. A large bowl of fruit sat next to a pitcher of water, and he grabbed an apple off the top and tossed it to her. "The importance of diet to maintaining one's health cannot be overstated."

Kassandra looked at the apple in her hand. "What good can one apple really do?"

"Well, taken daily, they can keep the doctor away." The smile in his voice faded. "But on to more serious matters, like the reason you're here. You're looking for your mother."

She'd never been that specific when talking to him.

His gaze roamed across her face. "You have your mother's eyes," he explained.

"Ah." Her chest suddenly ached.

"I've never forgotten her face." He leaned back against a table and sighed. "I was young then, and I didn't have the skills to help her. I turned her away." He looked down at his hands. "I'd... given people bad news before. But your mother... She burned with determination when others would have collapsed into their grief. She shamed me."

"How?"

"Before I met her, I was just a priest. After, I swore to Apollo that I'd never turn away another patient — that I'd dedicate my life to learning everything I could about healing, even the things the other priests refused to try." He was silent for a moment, thinking of the past. "She had a strength about her that left an impression on me."

"She'd be happy to know that."

"I sent your mother to the Sanctuary of Asklepios. They'll have votive records of her visit, but you should try to get an audience with the Elder priest. Tell him I'll be sending him my notes on a new treatment for the sacred disease."

She bowed her head and clasped her hands together in gratitude. "Thank you for this, Hippokrates."

Her mother had spoken to this man, had been here and traveled these same roads, and for a brief moment she'd come to life in his telling. Hippokrates had brought Kassandra closer to her mother than anyone else had, just by remembering her.

.oOo.

The Sanctuary of Asklepios was less a refuge than a place where misery fed upon the living, who drifted like spirits within the shrines and buildings, caught between life and death. Myrrine was one of them now. She'd delivered Alexios into the care of the priests, had allowed herself to be bathed and fed, before being turned out to wander the Sanctuary's grounds until the priests brought her news.

She found a bench in a quiet corner near a fountain, away from the crowds on the walkways. The leaves of an olive tree shivered above her, and the Sanctuary swirled with nervous winds under grey skies. It had not yet begun to rain.

The people around her were silent as they dwelled in their own private worlds, and the fountain's lively waters poured into its basin, indifferent to them all. The basin was ringed by a grooved path worn deep into the stones. Heavy were the worries that burdened all those footsteps.

Every so often a priest would stop by to update her on Alexios's condition, and they spoke words she only half-heard, reassuring words meant to distract her from noticing that they never said he was getting better.

It was growing harder to keep her hope alive. Even embers ran out of fuel to burn eventually.

She paced the perimeter of the fountain's small square. The priests had placed large marble slabs around the edge, making a fence of sorts. Names were carved into the slabs: Agestratus, whose head ached so severely it drove him to madness, cured by applying a poultice of a rooster's tail feathers; Euphanes, suffering from bloat, cured by sacrificing ten dice and his gambling habit on the temple altar. Sometime soon, a priest would strike a mallet to his chisel and inscribe the names Myrrine and Alexios on the stone. She wondered what the words next to them would say.

Day turned to night, the moon hiding behind clouds that spat a fitful rain. She found herself alone next to the fountain. Most of the Sanctuary's visitors had retired to places she didn't know, and didn't care to. She had no need for a bed and no willingness to sleep.

Then she heard her name in the dark, spoken by a priest she didn't know. He was older than the others, and wore his pendant of Asklepios on a necklace of heavy gold. Mydon was his name, he said, and that he was sorry, deeply sorry — and his mouth kept moving and words came out but she didn't understand them. Words like "The fall was devastating..." and "There's nothing we can do..." and as long as she had hope, none of them would make any sense.

But he kept talking, and as he did, her hope faded to nothing, and she knew then what the priest was trying to tell her: Alexios was dead.

Then it felt as though her bones had turned to water, and she sank down to the ground as the last of the embers inside her went out. She broke into sobs, hunching over as they swept through her. "They're gone. They're both gone," she said between gasps, and then she cried out, her voice twisting into a dark howl.

The priest didn't move.

She sat there in the silence left after her wail. Inert like ashes.

Then she spoke to the stones beneath her, so worn with burdens. "Show me."

He helped her to her feet, let her lean on him as he guided her into the temple, past haggard young priests and a priestess, back to a room, and a table, and her son's motionless form.

The other part of her soul left her then. She had lost both Kassandra and Alexios, and only the barest of threads remained for the Fates to weave within her. No mother ever expected to outlive her children; their ghosts would pursue her like the Erinyes until the end of her days, but oh, she was too proud to go mad. She would exist, and she would be both alive and dead within the same body.

She picked Alexios up, cradled him in her arms, and began to sing him a song.

.oOo.

Kassandra arrived at the Sanctuary of Asklepios at dawn, under skies of broken slate streaked with red. Harbinger skies, and if she were back on the Adrestia, Barnabas would have taken one look at them and declared a storm was on its way.

The Sanctuary was nearly silent, save for the footsteps of priests hurrying to the temple, or abaton, or wherever else they needed to go across the expansive grounds. She caught one by his elbow as he tried to pass, but he looked at her, stammered, "I'm sorry Eagle Bearer, I can't help you," and scurried away.

Her reputation had apparently preceded her.

The next few priests said much the same thing, and she finally lost her temper with the last, dragging him into the shadows between two outbuildings before pinning him up against a wall with her forearm. "Who told you not to talk to me?" she demanded.

"Chrysis. She said it would be our heads if we talked to the Eagle Bearer."

Chrysis, the priestess she'd met in Argos. "How is it that she rules over the Sanctuary?"

His eyes widened. "She's the High Priestess of Hera in Argolis!"

So this Chrysis had power to go with her madness. "I need to see the Elder priest."

"Please, Eagle Bearer. She'll have me killed."

"Talk. Now."

"Find Mydon. He has quarters in the guesthouse. But good luck getting a word out of him — he no longer has a tongue."

She released him. "Go."

Priests without tongues and priestesses out for blood. This was a Sanctuary in name only, and time would tell how deep the sickness ran within it.

She returned to the walkway. It was warmer now, though the sun remained reluctant to come out, and when she breathed in, she smelled rain-damp soil and smoky incense. The grounds were more crowded, and a steady stream of horse-drawn carts wheeled past, carrying the ill and the infirm to the abaton and baths. White marble blocks lined the paved path on both sides, their smooth faces inscribed with names and treatments. Votive records, just as Hippokrates had said. But there were hundreds of these blocks, covered in thousands of names with no sense of organization. Finding her mother's name would take days.

She continued wandering, taking in the layout of the walkways, and the locations of the temples, shrines, and other buildings within the grounds. Her path took her from the Temple of Asklepios at the Sanctuary's core, to the outer edges, where the stone buildings were less worn and the trees were smaller and the marble blocks lining the path held fewer names and more blank spaces. Then she heard the sound of a chisel on stone, and followed it around a corner to its source.

An older priest stood at a marble block, carving another name into the Sanctuary's records. He pretended not to notice her, instead leaning close to his work and brushing stone dust away with his hand.

She stopped an armspan's distance away from him. She could pretend also, and she regarded the stone block in front of her without seeing. "If one wanted to find a particular name on these stones, how would they do it?" she mused.

"They'd have to ask a priest who keeps the records."

"A priest such as yourself?"

His fingers stilled on the carved letters. "There are countless records in this Sanctuary. Surely I'm too feeble to remember them all."

"It's a shame. I've traveled here a long way in search of my mother, and all I find are priests too afraid to talk to me."

"Times have changed, Eagle Bearer. It's..." He lowered his voice. "Chrysis. She says she'll kill anyone who helps you, and her threats are not idle."

"Just tell me where I can find the stone that holds the name Myrrine of Sparta. That's all I need."

He rested the point of his chisel against the stone and tapped it with the mallet. "Go to the grove of Artemis." He'd never looked at her once during their entire conversation.

She murmured her thanks, then left him to his work.

It was only a short walk to the grove of Artemis, its cypress trees an island of vibrant green among the skeletal ash and lindens in their winter sleep. In the summer, the cypress would smell of woody, heady spices, but winter's chill had buried it under the scents of damp earth and rotting leaves. The record stones jutted from the ground like a titan's teeth.

There were so many names. Here and there, entries caught her eye — Amyntas of Makedonia, suffering from sword wounds, healed after being licked clean by a pack of dogs — but none with her mother's name, or even names bearing the inscription 'of Sparta'. It was a rare Spartan who would leave Lakonia for anything other than glory.

More names. More odd treatments: snakes and boars' tongues, bear fat and chicken feet. And then she found an inscription notable for what it was missing than what it actually said: —of Sparta, with child, seeking pity from the gods— Someone had carved out the rest.

She was staring at the obliterated stone when she felt someone approaching from behind.

"It is as I feared, then." The stone-cutting priest.

"What is someone trying to hide?"

"I'll tell you. Myrrine of Sparta, who arrived filthy and bleeding from her travels. We cared for her, gave her food, a bath. The child... could not be saved, though we tried everything we could. Where she went after, I do not know."

The child could not be saved. After her encounters with Deimos, she begged to differ. Alexios was alive and unwell, and this priest was either a good liar, or believed the lie himself.

He went on. "I have something more for you. Meet me at sundown, near the Olive Tree of Herakles at the entrance of the sanctuary."

Footsteps sounded on the path into the grove behind them, and she turned to find another priest walking towards them.

"And what do we have here, a priest and a mercenary having a chat?" His manner was friendly, but his eyes were cold.

The stone-cutter cowered under the other priest's gaze. "May the gods be with you, Pleistos! I was just on my way to the archives when she bumped into me."

"Is that so? Might I ask what were you discussing so fervently?"

Kassandra took the opening. "The good priest here was teaching me how to heal sword wounds."

"And what is the treatment for sword wounds according to my friend?"

"You use dogs to lick the wounds clean," she answered.

"Very good! Don't give away all our tricks, Timoxenos. Who will bring offerings to the gods when our patients learn to heal themselves?"

"No, no, of course not," Timoxenos stammered. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must get to the archives." He bowed, then hurried away. He had placed himself in a great deal of danger to seek her out.

"You have your treatment, Eagle Bearer. Now please leave the Sanctuary. We have nothing else for you here."

"A shame to find a place of healing so unwelcome," she said, giving him an exaggerated bow. "But it shall be as you ask."

The Sanctuary was no longer safe for her to travel openly, but there was much she could do from the shadows. The long night of winter would provide them to her soon enough. She returned to the stable where she'd picketed Phobos, mounted up, and disappeared into the forest.

A little before sundown, she watched the Olive Tree of Herakles in the evening light, waiting to see if Timoxenos would arrive as he'd promised.

She saw him walking up the road, and met him beneath the branches of the enormous tree. He pulled a piece of white fabric out from inside his robes.

"Your mother left a blanket behind. We tried to return it, but she said it was too painful a memory." He held it out. "Take it."

She did, and her hands shook as she beheld a blanket she hadn't seen in twenty years. White fabric had turned dirty grey, stained with streaks of rust and brown. She remembered her mother's fingers tucking that fabric around her baby brother the night the Elder priest and the guards came for them. "How did you get this?" she asked, as she folded the blanket and slid it carefully inside her armor.

"I took it from the archi—" His eyes suddenly widened as he spotted something behind her. "Oh, no."

She turned. It was the priest who'd threatened her earlier, Pleistos, along with a burly-looking guard.

"So, Chrysis was right," Pleistos said. "You knew the rules, Timoxenos. You will suffer her wrath."

Kassandra pushed Timoxenos against the tree. "Stay behind me," she said, shifting position so he stood between her and the tree's massive trunk. Keeping him alive would complicate matters.

Pleistos pulled a dagger from his belt, and the guard hefted a poleaxe. She drew her spear and launched it at the priest in one smooth movement. Risky, but her reward was the sound of a gurgled gasp that let her focus on charging the guard. His body was already twisting back into a swing.

The head of the poleaxe slid into view, and then she was inside its reach, with her sword held high. The handle of the axe slammed against her armor as she chopped down at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. The impact of the axe handle against her ribs stole her breath and dropped her to her knees, but the guard went down with her, his head flopping over at an unnatural angle. She pulled her sword clear, and staggered to her feet and over to Pleistos.

Her spear jutted out from the priest's throat, and as her fingers wrapped around its handle, the blood craving wrapped her in its pleasures. Her ribs no longer ached and she smiled down at the dying man and said, "You chose poorly," as she pulled the blade from his neck.

Timoxenos appeared at her shoulder. "They would have killed us both."

She nodded, only half-listening as she bent down and used the point of her spear to sweep the guard's cloak aside. His armor was heavy and angular, stamped with an insignia of twined snakes.

The Cult. The pieces were beginning to fit into place.

She turned to Timoxenos. "You're no longer safe here. Do you have someplace you can go?"

"This is the only home I have."

"Then go to Hippokrates's clinic, and wait there while I deal with Chrysis. But first, I need a favor."

"Name it."

"Which room in the guesthouse is Mydon's?"

"Mydon? He's well guarded!" He looked down at her bloody armor and weapons. "But you won't have any trouble, I suppose. His chambers are the largest in the back of the building."

She gave him her thanks, then looked back at the lights of the Sanctuary flickering in the twilight. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed the men she'd killed were missing and raised an alarm.

That could not happen before she found Mydon.

She stowed her sword and spear and broke into a run, heading for the forest, the blood on her skin drying slowly in the cold wind.

.oOo.

The guesthouse was guarded, as Timoxenos had said it would be, with two sentries at the main entrance, one at the side entrance, and one at the servants' entrance. All wearing bright armor with Cult insignias.

She climbed the wall that shielded the servants' entrance from sight, high enough to sneak a look. The guard she'd seen in the doorway earlier was no longer there, perhaps on patrol within the building, or off having a piss. No matter; it only made things easier. She levered herself over the edge and dropped down the other side, wincing as the landing jarred her ribs. She kept in a crouch and moved to the wall to the right of the door. Then she held her breath and listened.

Footsteps on tile. Heavy. A man's tread approaching the door.

Her fingers closed around a stone and she stood up slowly, flattening herself against the wall. Most people looked to the right when they passed through an open doorway; a distraction would ensure this man did.

She tossed the stone as the footsteps reached the threshold, heard the clack as it landed and a sudden indrawn breath, and then the man stepped through the doorway looking away from her. She was on him in an instant, her spear opening his throat and her weight forcing him to the ground to keep him from thrashing.

The servants' foyer was dark and silent. A doorway on the other side opened into an atrium. She could see no other halls. Every guestroom would open to the atrium directly.

She hid within the shadows in the foyer and looked out across the atrium. Benches covered with pillows, lit braziers, delicate vases. All the trappings of hospitality, except for the armed guard standing watch next to a set of ornate double doors. The atrium was too open, the angles too poor for her to sneak up on him. She could use her spear to kill him, but leaving any blood in the open would be risky. There was no way to tell if all the guests had returned to their rooms for the night.

Sounds at the main entrance, followed by movement, as a young servant woman walked into the atrium carrying a jug. She walked up to the guard, exchanged quiet words, and then Kassandra heard the sound of the doors opening.

That was all the distraction she needed. She came up behind him as he was closing the doors, and as he turned back around she chopped him hard across his throat with the edge of her hand. She caught him as he fell, covered his mouth with one hand and hooked her arm under him, and dragged him back through the servants' foyer, dumping him next to the other guard's body. The strangled choking sounds he made gave her pause, and she knifed him quickly in the throat. She'd shed no tears for Cultists, but asphyxiation was a hard way to go.

Her path back to the doors was clear, and she opened them and slipped inside.

She found the young woman and the old priest in the middle of an embrace, so distracted with themselves that they didn't notice her come out from the shadows and lean up against a nearby wall. She folded her arms and watched them kiss and paw at each other. At this rate, she'd end up seeing something she absolutely didn't want to.

She cleared her throat.

The woman whirled around. "Guards!"

Kassandra examined her bloody fingernails. "They're dead," she said simply. She looked at the priest. "And you must be Mydon."

He let out a disconcerting moan. So she'd been told at least one true thing while she'd been in the Sanctuary.

"He doesn't speak," the servant said. Apparently she was used to speaking for him.

"So I've heard. I'm here to find out why."

"Chrysis did this to him."

"I thought he did this to himself."

"To prove his loyalty to her!"

"Now why would Chrysis want an Elder priest to cut out his tongue?"

"Mydon is a caring, generous man!"

"I don't care what kind of man he is. And now I want answers from him, not you." She fixed her gaze upon him. "Do you remember Myrrine of Sparta, and the baby she brought here years ago?"

He nodded. Yes.

"Did you save the baby?"

No.

"Did she tell you where she was going after?"

No.

She put together all the pieces she'd gathered. "I know why Chrysis made you cut out your tongue. The night my mater brought my brother here, you and your priests thought he was dead. And Chrysis didn't want you telling the story because she took the baby, didn't she? She made you cut out your tongue to hide the truth."

Yes. Yes. Yes.

"Mydon told me how the Spartan woman wept. Held the baby in her arms, sang to him, before finally leaving him to the gods."

"But Chrysis took him instead. Where is she?"

"There's an altar and a small temple near the statue of Apollo Maleatas, up on the bluff overlooking the valley. People take their sick babies there to be healed."

Mydon's eyes glistened with tears, and he clasped his hands together, bowed his head, and tried to speak. None of it was understandable.

Kassandra was suddenly tired of this place and its desperation. "People come to this Sanctuary to be healed — but I come here and find people dying without hope, priests without tongues, and babies left with a madwoman."

She would cut out this sickness at its source.

.oOo.

It was a long, hard climb to the top of the bluff, and once she reached the altar that stood upon it, she smelled blood clotting in the cold breeze. Someone had killed a golden eagle and left it splayed across the top of the altar. It wasn't Ikaros, she knew, but the threat was close enough. The anger she'd kept sheathed within her since she arrived at the Sanctuary pulled itself free and lanced into her blood, bright and burning.

The clouds overhead looked as if a giant beast had riven them with its claws, and moonlight filtered through their torn edges. The wind jostled the dead eagle's feathers. She scanned the top of the bluff, looking for the temple.

She only found a worn path leading away from the altar into the forest.

Suddenly the breeze picked up, and brought with it the sound of a baby crying. Her mind knew it was a trap, but her heart accelerated anyway, and she started running up the path, following the sound.

Nyx had stolen the color from the forest, cut the trees into slashes of black and the underbrush to mottled granite. Beams of light slanted through the cutouts and sparkled in droplets of water scattered by her passage.

Her heart drummed in perfect, relentless time, and her breath came easily, fueling her long muscles to plant, and push, plant, and push as the path gently curved, and the forest thinned, and she saw orange specks of light bobbing in the far distance.

The path opened into a small clearing, and she felt the attackers before she saw them, twisting aside as a dark form dropped from the tree above her. A blade whipped past her ear and smashed into the armor across her left shoulder. Fire bloomed in the joint, shooting tendrils of pain up her neck and down into her chest. She dropped to the ground and rolled into the underbrush, heard the smack of metal against the dirt where she'd just been, and she kicked out, feeling her greave sink into meaty flesh.

She rolled again, then climbed to her feet with her spear in her good hand. There were two armored outlines in front of her, swords glinting, one with a shield and the other dual-wielding a dagger. She swapped her spear to her left hand, biting back a hiss as fire cascaded down her arm, and drew her sword with her right. Pain could be ignored, pushed aside. She'd let her anger fill its place.

She backpedaled, drawing them into the trees. Shield and Dagger. Shield was limping, and she edged around to his weak side, her senses open and ready. His sword-arm tensed, and she backpedaled another step, putting tree branches between her and Dagger and making Shield come to her. His sword sliced down in a silver arc and she raised her spear to meet it. Their blades clashed, and then she sank down instead of pushing back against him, letting his follow-through pull him off-balance above her as she swung her sword around and cut his legs out from under him.

The momentum from her swing lifted her upwards, and she bounced to her feet with her weapons raised in time to deflect a rapid series of sword and dagger strikes.

Her opponent was good. Disciplined. Moved like a woman, with a woman's fluid quickness. They traded attacks: quick, testing strikes. Kassandra kept moving, kept circling, and she could feel the winds shift around them as they moved between the trees. She sensed stillness behind her, and she stepped back, back, inviting the arc of the woman's sword, waiting for commitment to the swing. She ducked. The sword bit deep into the trunk of the tree, and Kassandra's spear sank deep into the woman's side, just above her belt. The woman died with a sigh, as if surprised by the sudden turn of events.

Kassandra took a few steadying breaths and let the warm wave of satisfaction lave the jagged edges of pain in her shoulder smooth. She'd been careless. She shook off the memory of metal whipping past her ear.

As her heartbeat settled and its pounding in her ears faded, she could hear the baby's cry louder than ever, coming from the temple that was now visible through the trees, its columns haloed in torchlight.

She kept her weapons unsheathed as she approached, and she paused before its heavy wooden doors. Stillness, but for the baby's desperate wails.

The doors opened reluctantly, and she ignored the flare of pain as she pushed them apart and stepped into the temple, breathing in the heavy scent of incense. The air felt strangely greasy.

A small marble altar sat at the back of the chamber, its surface strewn with dried flowers and a few scattered oil lamps. Behind the altar stood Chrysis, with the baby cradled in her arms. The priestess's eyes glittered as they lingered on Kassandra's bloody weapons.

"Killing seems to run in your bloodline, oh mighty Kassandra."

"Keep my name out of your mouth, snake."

"I still remember the night your mother brought me my child. So sad and pathetic, crying in the rain. Had I known then that Myrrine had two children... but, here you are. My family is complete."

"Your family is built from lies. You let my mother believe her baby was dead."

"But he was. How she wept after his little heart stopped beating. But then I took care of him. Placed him on this very altar. Screamed for the gods to spare his life. And they listened."

Kassandra took a step closer. "What did you do with my brother?"

"I saved his life. By teaching him to suffer. To know pain so well that he would learn to welcome it like an old friend. And now, he will teach all of the Greek world to know that pain."

"You... tortured a child?" Kassandra didn't want to believe what she was hearing, but it explained too much not to be true. Her fingers tightened around the handle of the spear, and white-hot pain seared within her shoulder.

"I taught him to survive! This world is cruel. It demands strength, or death. So I gave him strength." Chrysis rocked the baby in her arms. "That's something your weakling of a mother could never do. I let her crawl off to Korinth, but that's before I knew about your bloodline." Her eyes returned to Kassandra, looking at her hungrily. "But she can't hide forever. She will give us more children."

"I'll run my spear through your throat before that happens. And you'll pay for all the pain you've caused my family."

Chrysis threw back her head in laughter. "This world is pain. I gave Deimos strength to cope while your mother whined to the gods like a pig on an altar. I'm more a mother to Deimos than she ever was. I can be a mother to you, too, Kassandra."

"You're insane. You bring nothing but suffering."

"You talk of suffering and yet look at you now, drenched in blood. How many did you kill just to come here?" Those mad, piercing eyes stared at her. "Tell me, Kassandra, do you enjoy it?"

For once, Kassandra had nothing to say.

Chrysis smiled benevolently. "You're a killer, just like your brother. Here, let me show you." She placed the baby on the altar, then swept the lamps to the floor before Kassandra could move.

The entire chamber went up in a fireball. Kassandra threw her arms in front of her face as the wave of heat enveloped her — and swirling out from that heat came great howls of laughter. The mad priestess meant for Kassandra to choose: the baby, or her vengeance.

She waded into the inferno, its hot teeth gnawing at her as she looked for the altar. She almost ran into it before she saw its outline through the smoky flames, and she scooped the baby into her arms and dashed out the back doors into fresh air.

Chrysis was long gone, as she'd expected, and she kept running until she felt grass under her feet and the heat from the burning temple faded to warmth. Then her legs gave out and she stumbled to her knees, barely able to hang on to the baby cradled in her good arm. The shawl she wore over her armor was singed and smoking. She lifted the baby closer, and tentatively pulled its wrapping away from its face.

The baby was a boy, and he looked as if he'd frozen solid, his eyes scrunched shut and his mouth wide, and for a moment Kassandra feared the worst. But then his eyes snapped open — eyes of wet, milky blue that drifted around without focus -- and he took a breath, and then another. He began to wriggle, and then fuss. "Hey, little one. It's okay," she murmured.

Kassandra knelt there, scorched and aching in the moonlight, and she rocked the baby in her arms, and began to sing him a song.

Part of the Elegiad. Go back to the previous story, or on to the next...

#kassandra #myrrine #ac odyssey #wherein i commit a big writing sin in this fic #but i don't care because i wanted this structure damn it #i only hurt the characters i love #elegiad

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nomanicsdak · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://manicdak.com/the-cure-and-the-cult-and-demokritoss-atomic-dustbin/

The Cure and the Cult and Demokritos's Atomic Dustbin

The Doctor is Out

Well, it’s time to visit our next person for Mom clues. I will consult the quest list and find out that it is none other than Hippokrates himself. Doctor of Doctors. This guy is chillin’ over in Argolis, which doesn’t sound like a place I’ve visited. Yes, there are still vast quantities of map I haven’t even uncovered yet, as I might have mentioned before. It is right nearby where I already am, so I’m going to take some time now to complete some more locations. I find another tomb! Agamemnon’s tomb. There is nothing at all exciting in here except for snakes, so we’ll just complete the location and see Hippokrates.

Sostratos is his name. Thanks, screencap!

JK! I go to Hippokrates clinic and all I find there is his assistant. Soso…that is not his name. I forget what his name is because I did this the other day, but I know it begins with So and probably ends with ates, but it’s definitely not Soktrates. I will update you when I meet this guy again. Also there is a priestess, Chrysis, who is demanding Hippokrates bow down and proclaim that his mad healing skillz came from the Gods and not science. We basically tell her to get lost. I’m sure she will come back to haunt us later.

In any case, Soso gives me directions and stuff to deliver to Hippokrates and tells me not to mention his bald spot, which I do anyway when I finally get there.

As for Hippokrates, he hasn’t the time for my mommy issues or discussion about his follicular insecurities. Also, why would he even remember Myrrine, he has a zillion patients anyway. I press him for info, but he has tasks for me to do before he can trust and talk. Fiiiiine. First and foremost is some commander stole his notes on brain disease and he needs it to help this dude that is dying on his table right now. He has stiffness of limbs and foaming of the mouth.

Sounds like Tetanus (at first I thought rabies, but we’re dealing and soldiers with possibly rusty swords not animal bites), but still I can’t give Hippokrates the deets, because I am Alexios, not actually gifted in future medical know how even though some future person is peeping through my blood memories. (Remember the premise of Assassin’s Creed? I know, I too forget until I get cut-scened into the future… We haven’t been back to the future in a long time though.)

Maps Are Hard, Okay?

I am off to do Hippokrates bidding, because I am all for actually helpful medicines and getting the info I need too. I am supposed to look for this fort in the north of Argolis, but I have looked all over the damn north and have yet to find a damn thing. Is it “north” in Argolis, but south of the city? WHERE IS IT. I am not turning on easy mode for you, Hippokrates.

**Several tens of minutes later** Please do not laugh, it is actually North of the Ancient Ruins of Perseus not Northern Argolis. This area is clearly labeled on the map, in readable English letters. Excuse while I go hide of shame.

So, I have to sneak into this place without killing anybody, because I made a promise to Hippokrates. An oath, if you will. I don’t sneak so much as I manage to get caught and then hide until the dudes stop looking for me. It is a minor miracle that I was able to get into a hiding space while still inside the fort. I go to meet the doctor there who is definitely amenable to helping me out. Like—why can’t I just send in Ikaros with a note for this dude to meet me outside or something. Because that would be easy.

Notes? What Notes? Side note to the notes: I like this dude’s necklace!

Nothing is easy, especially when Fort Doctor tells me the notes have burned. He did memorize them and will come with me to Hippokrates to help out if I do him a solid and retrieve his bone forceps from some soldiers who keep stealing them for Gods knows what reasons. Whatever they are, they can’t possibly be sanitary. So, I do that, less than stealthily, making this quest so much very longer than it has to be, but I don’t kill anybody. Will this get me secret points to cash in at a later date? Probably not, I don’t think Assassin’s Creed has that much finesse re choices, but you never know when you’re going to need a doctor in the end game and he doesn’t show up because you pissed him off at some point previously. I mean, I already asked about his bald spot.

So, Fort Doctor and Hippokrates meet and this time the bad news is the patient has died because we were too slow. Was this quest on a secret timer? Because I spent an awful lot of time avoiding killing anybody, or does the guy always die? The world may never know. Anyway, Fort Doctor sticks around to transcribe what he remembers of the notes and help out.

Turns out Hippokrates does vividly remember my mom. He turned her away when she came to him for help with her depression and sent her to a sanctuary or something. He vowed to never turn away another person after that. So, now I have my next destination! Are we taking bets on whether or not that priestess I met earlier is at this sanctuary? Let’s find out!

youtube

Near the River of Dreams, as foretold in the ballads of William the Joel

Gods, Snakes, and Secrets

I am to head to the middle of the valley of dreams.

Why are there two targets here? Do I have to do tasks for multiple priests to get my info? Drat.

Well, the first guy is less than helpful. In fact he’s a jerk who won’t talk to me because he’s under orders not to talk to mercenaries about Spartan women and injured babies. How very specific. Obviously he’s got the deets. If I rid his sacred bath of snakes then he will talk to me after all, it turns out. I guess he’s not THAT loyal to whoever ordered him to keep his mouth shut.

First he regales me with stories of how the gods heal the sick, which are wild. The bath is a sacred cleansing and then god of healing, Asklepios will come to the patients. As for the snakes, there is a special snake house that they escaped from where people with mind sickness go. The snakes lick them with their tongues and it is like a kiss from the gods. The snakes have escaped their house.

I can’t kill the snakes either, because the priests need their kisses. I have to chill them with cold water so they go back to their own warm snake houses. That doesn’t sound right, but there are no Snake Discovery videos about how to safely rid an ancient Greek bathhouse of sacred God kissing snakes, so what do I know?

I find the pipe and wonder why this dude couldn’t have turned on the cold water his damn self. This guy is the worst, he doesn’t even tell me anything and walks around laughing like it’s all a big joke. I just get another guy to talk to.

A Tablet of Truth

The next priest who is carving records into stone is Timoxenos. He is very helpful and talkative despite orders. Turns out Chrysis is the priestess here and it was she who has put the fear of gods into everybody and told them not to talk to me, also, yes, she is the lady who was giving Hippokrates’s assistant an earful at the beginning of this chapter. What is her deal? Because I didn’t side with her when she was harassing Soso? Also, whoever bet that she would be here, you win!

Stone Tales

Anyway, Tim over here, leads me to my mom’s stone. She came here wounded with a child and then went on her way. The child did not survive. I’m going to meet Tim later though, because we get caught and I have to pretend like I’m asking for directions.

Later, at the Olive tree, we get caught again. I have to defeat Chrysis’s thugs and Tim is nowhere to be found afterward. I hope he ran away! On to the next priest who is probably not going to help me, I guess.

He is battling some contagion which cannot be helped with the regular sacrifices or snake kisses. I offer to help him, because there are people suffering, for goodness sake. He thinks I want money and whatever nonsense Chrysis has been spewing, but if I bring him an alive white bull—maybe he’ll talk. I’m hoping he’s more of a Tim, less of a bathhouse dude whose name I don’t remember because eff that guy!

Let’s go safely trap a bull! *gets stun arrows ready*

I don’t need them, as it turns out, because bandits already killed the bull. Dammit. Uggghh, now the bull heart I bring back to the priest can only help one person and I have to choose. The farmer whose bull it was (he provides food to the area), a wealthy woman (with 2 kids), or the child (who wants to sacrifice herself for the others). Noooo. Well, I am going to choose the selfless child,

and then like—refer everybody else to Hippokrates, because he has actual medicines probably? Chrysis can go jump off a bridge. (PS. I can’t actually do that.)

The deed is done, the adults curse my name and vow revenge. And the priest refers me to the oldest man here for more info. I also learn that this old guy he speaks of cut out his own tongue and also I level up! Nice.

So, the guesthouse where oldie lives is guarded as hell, and I have to bully my way in there, but tbh I’ve had just about enough of Chrysis, so her thugs can be gone. When I finally meet the old man, he is hooking up with a slave. She speaks for him about how the baby was past saving, but eventually it comes out that Chrysis took the infant. (and gave her to the cult, obvies. Since Kassandra is all cult-brainwashed now and certainly alive.) Poor Myrrine thought both her babies were dead, but they were both not. Where the heck is she now?

It’s a Chrysis!

I still don’t know yet. I go seek Chrysis out at a baby saving altar and she tells me all her evil plans over this random screaming infant.

Ughhh, turns out this woman kidnapped my sister and abused her to “teach her how to be strong.” She wants more children from Myrrine, who must still be in hiding and tbh, I am double over her. Especially now that I know she’s hassling me, not because I sided with Soso, but because she’s a G-D Cultist.

She basically calls me a hypocrite because I’m an assassin myself with a body count too, and then she throws on a Molotov cocktail or some such at the baby. Okay, I may be an assassin, but at least I wouldn’t ever try to torch a baby. This isn’t the Sims. Geez. I save the baby from the fire of course and the kid’s mom thinks it’s all the God’s plan even if the baby had burned. Luckily God sent me and Chrysis can do no wrong. Gee, you’re welcome lady.

Well, the distraction worked. Chrysis has escaped, and I have to find her again. Alas, her quest-line is ended, so I guess I’m not meant to find her right away.

I need a break from all those revelations, so I’m going to do a character quest now. It is called “The Dunce conundrum” That sounds fun. (Probably not with my luck.) I have to go talk to a dude called Demokritos “The Laughing Philosopher” to unlock a mystery with some theorems. Cooool, sounds like my worst geometric nightmare, but off we go!

I run across a quest on the way to meet Demokritos. It is a woman wailing about suspicious bandits in a supposedly safe forest kidnapping her husband and her horse. I offer to help and as it turns out, it is a trap set by Chrysis, because she knew I would help.

Uhh…congrats, lady? On your plan to lure me out when I was already looking for you. Seriously, you didn’t have to kill a dude to face me, you could have just not run away the first time!

WTF. She is trying to get me to join her! ‘Yo, Alexios, sorry I broke your mother and kidnapped and abused your sister, but you should come work for me now!’ Forget that, I’m going to avenge my sister.

She calls some plain old footsoldiers to fight me and well—I may have hit her with a hasty and wildly aimed arrow or she might have been stabbed by her lackeys. Honestly, I cannot tell. Either way, I easily defeat the soldiers and return to Chrysis so I can vow to reunite my family before I put an end to her evil child abusing ways for good. I wonder if I have enough shards to upgrade my spear yet.

Theorems, Theorems, Everywhere, and also a Cyclops

Update: I do!

Also, is it just me or are there new things on spear island? There is a golden Q here now. Did I just miss a legendary creature all the times we came here? Let’s go check it out.

OK, it’s a literal ass cyclops. (Not a one eyed human gangster) Time to run the fuck away because this thing is ten levels above me still.

A Thoughtful Demokritos

Should I visit the Laughing Philosopher? Sounds good to me! Bye, bye, Clops.

I fast travel to Demokritos and he tells me the tales of three theorems that will lead to great treasure, Zeno’s Paradox, the Pythagorean Theorem—no need to search for that one my dude it’s A² + B² = C². You’re welcome, and thank you, math class. The third one is the Golden Ratio. He says he will pay me for my help.

Of course I will find them, but I want the treasure man. Unless the treasure is more math, then you can have it. Will these three theorem’s combine together to create some sort of mega-theorem, a STEMzord if you will?

Judging by the name of the quest, I feel I’m going to come out of this looking foolish, but let’s find out!

The Zeno’s paradox is first, so let’s head on over there.

On my way there, I stumble across a bear den. “Salty” bear to be exact. He is big and white and I forgot I had my knockout arrows out for that bull, because now Salty is not defeated, he is my friend. Yay! I don’t keep him for long, because taming the bear completes the location as I found out with Lions McGee. So, I just let him go right where I found him and go on about my business. It takes me a while to find this paradox because it is in the very corner of the area I’m looking in.

There are a lot of incomplete locations here still, but I am off to find Pythagoris’s theorem for now. It is, of course, in the middle of a triangle of islands. I wander all around the area getting attacked by pirates, including one boat that gave me an achievement for defeating! I don’t know what that achievement was, but go me! Pythagoras’s theorem is in an underwater temple along with a cultist clue!

Precious and Salty

Next, the Golden ratio is super easily acquired in a sculptor’s studio. OF course. I learned about that one in art class I now realize. Ah, well, since I already have all the knowledge it’s time to head back to finish the quest. (Except for Zeno? Do I know that one? Maybe Demokritos will tell me when I show him all my scrolls.)

Okay, I’m going cheat and look this up because Demo here is asking me trivia questions about these concepts that I get to multiple choice answer and I’m assuming he’s assuming I already read it, so I might as well already read it.

I don’t know. Infinite divisibility sounds like the best of my options, but I read about Achilles and the Tortoise and am very confused. Why are we giving this reptile a head start anyway? Well, divisibility was the right answer to impress Demokritos, but I still don’t get it.

As for the Pythagorean theorem, according to Demokritos this is the greatest breakthrough of all time. Yeah! Triangles!

And the Golden ratio is in everything and everybody or nothing at all, making things mathematically right and beautiful in the world.

As it turns out Demokritos really is creating his own STEMzord mega-theory. Let’s see what it is. He postulates that as we break down things into infinitely divisible parts then there is more space between them. Huh, is he talking about like…atoms? quantum physics? Is he going to invent time travel or a shrink ray or be the father of the memory machine? (At this point, I wiki good old Demo who is a person that did indeed exist like many characters in this game. We are talking atoms! Yeah!)

He hopes to unite the world with this theory anyway. TBH this kind of science seems like it might do the opposite at this point in time, or maybe not and I’ve just been dealing with too many fanatically religious cultists lately. (Nope, I look this up too and nobody takes his atomic hypothesis seriously until the 19th damn century. I’m learning a lot on this quest.)

Ahah! He does have an ulterior motive though. He’s creating his STEMzord mega-theory to impress a girl. Of course he is. I am not one for wasting time, so I convince him to go see her now. Unfortunately there is a crapload of bandits at her house. No! Also, they are a good seven levels above me. Err—can I put this quest on hold after I convinced Demokritos to come here? I didn’t think I was going to need a save point before I accepted the next part of his nerd-quest! Will he just wait for me to grind? Let’s find out on the next installment of !Dakplays Assassin’s Creed!

#Assasin's Creed #Demokritos #Salty the bear #STEMzord #Assassin's Creed #Games #Odyssey

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chryzure-archive · 2 years

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I was listening to Achilles Come Down earlier today and it did make me think of Azure (bc ya know… French…) and uhhh can I get any rant about he and Chrysi please? I love them a lot 🥺

that song’s on so many of their playlists! mostly the vibe is sooooo 🥰🥰🥰 but ummmm, yes 🖤 i have a rant for them because they’re so…! i mean, like, major spoilers for the fic in working on but i’ve already spoiled everything regarding it because it’s jst a way for me to explain how chrysi caused jacks’s kiss + what it was that caused azure to try and save chrysi by leaving her !!!!

but BASICALLY

azures devotion to chrysi is his end-all, be-all. it is all he cares about. her happiness matters above all else (and he would prefer it if they could be happy together, but he’ll put his own needs aside for his chryseis)

that’s why it HURTS LIKE HELL that in this backstory fic (epilogue—commencement & closure), chrysi DIES IN HIS ARMS. while he’s asleep! she died and he didn’t even know it. i think that chrysi dying, jst in general, is enough to break him—but to have her die and he was there, useless and asleep? that shatters him and UGH, of course he’s going to make a bad decision!!!! he wants nothing more than to have chrysi back or to be with chrysi. that’s all he wants. he was willing to run away from being the crown prince and to steal money frm the royal treasury to fund a treatment effort for chrysi’s illness :(((

then he makes a deal with the stars and HE DOESNT THINK IT THROUGH ENTIRELY!!! he should’ve seen that the phrasing “you’ll live through many lives with her—as many as you need until you reach your happy ending” WAS SUSPICIOUS AS HELL….. why did the stars make it sound like only a happy ending was the way to get their reincarnations to stop!! and why does it seem like they’re using azure and chrysi as their new entertainment? of COURSE the stars will start to interfere with their future lives and make them miserable so they don’t lose out on their new favorite tv show of chryzure heartbreaks!!!!!

but he misses chrysi so much and he can’t live w the guilt,,,, and so he dies by her side 💔💔💔 but he doesn’t even get the courtesy of remaining human, because the stars make him a bed of roses instead.

then, like…. when azure realizes, in all his future lives, that because of that decision he made, he’s doomed chrysi (and him) to an endless string of lives ending in tragedy, GOD. the GUILT HE FEELS. all because he loved chrysi so much and because he made a decision for her happiness…. but now he has to realize that he made a huge mistake and that it’s all his fault. WAILING. CRYING. PLEASE!!!!

so it’s a combo of guilt and a hope that, if azure leaves, then chrysi won’t be doomed to another tragic ending + she’ll be able to escape the loop of reincarnation they’re trapped in,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but unfortunately, he also needs to have a happy ending for it to be over, and the only way he’ll be happy is if it’s with her…! AAAAGHHHH!!!!

so that’s why he left chrysi with jacks 🤧 the future he referenced in that one letter was rlly jst him remembering that he made a deal with the stars so he and chrysi would keep coming back until they have a “happily ever after” and he couldn’t handle getting chrysi killed again,,,, so he LEFT.

not that he’s not doing something to try and combat his own deal (the entire time chrysi’s w jacks, azure is trying to figure out how to beat the stars, if there’s a loophole, if he could jst Kill All Of Them), but it’s also… idk, a hope that chrysi’s childhood friend can be a happy ending for her. but, unfortunately, azure is also jealous and he doesn’t want chrysi to be with anyone other than him. he’s got a lot going on

#.asks #m.filly✨#s.chryzure #idk if im making sense but like AAAAAAA #it explains all of azure’s motivations !!! SOBBING #also jacks doesn’t recall the past nor did azure rlly explain to him what he saw when HE remembered the past #so jacks jst thinks that him being a fate is the issue at hand #ITS NOT. this predates even you jacky 💔

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chryzure-archive · 2 years

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I was listening to the Beauty and The Beast soundtrack (the animated one because<3 yeah <3) and I was reminded of your Chryzure AU... please tell me more about it they are soulmates <3

so many thoughts abt this au......... jst sad, lonely azure, and chrysi who sees a boy with horns and a tail and thinks "he's rlly pretty, huh? i'm going to kiss him."

i've actually been thinking abt how azure was turned into a beast. he broke up with meredith bc she's, uhhh, not a great person? but she was rlly mad at him for doing so, and, you know, cursed azure. we can assume the rest of that scene.

well, bc azure got soooo cursed, his father essentially went "not my problem you were too weak to stop the curse, you poor excuse of a witch." and he left with the rest of azure's family and most of the servants. basically, once azure figures out how to break the curse, he'll get his family back, and his whole... personhood technically restored.

after azure's family left, meredith suddenly considered the fact that it might've been his family's fault that they couldn't be together, so she fucking killed them. all of them. and she showed up at the castle again, all bloody and deranged, and was like "i've solved the problem! sorry for cursing you, i didn't consider the rest of the situation!" and azure's like "........ you killed my family....? uh, yeah, definitely still not going to date you."

yes, azure's had a messy childhood--he despises his father, and he feels resentment towards his mother since she let his father treat him so poorly, but they were still his parents. and his twin sister may have played cruel tricks on him growing up, but she was still his twin sister. so yeah, he's not happy about the situation.

this makes meredith more enraged, so she turns the remaining servants in the castle into objects (since she also has a thing where she views the "help" as inanimate objects. she's not a very good person, clearly). she continues to visit azure every month to ask if he's changed his mind and he wants to marry her finally. he's been saying a firm no for the last 10 years, though, and she's not very happy about it.

cut to chrysi, who has recently moved to the countryside with her father after her mother died. you know, all things considered, she's holding in there pretty well. the town all thinks she's extremely weird (pretty accurate. she does talk to ghosts) but as long as she can read books and visit the cemetery, she's fine.

her father, on the other hand, worries for her. he wants chrysi to be able to move out and find her own happiness--whether that means finding employment or a lover or anything, he doesn't care. he just is concerned that chrysi's shackling herself down to protecting him.

elias bloom is there to help with those concerns!...... yuck. yeah, typical "elias bloom obsession" is here. chrysi's icked out by him constantly, and she's frequently finding unique ways to escape his affection. (elias bloom is very determined to marry chrysi, and he frequently brings up the fact that she's 24 and nobody will love her and marry her anymore, since she's so old. chrysi has to roll her eyes at this.)

one day, chrysi escapes through the nearby woods and finds herself at an abandoned-looking castle. she remembers that the nobles in charge of this area all died, save for their oldest son, who is presumed missing.

she's a curious person (plus, she can see an angel statue, and she hopes there's a cemetery worthy of an abandoned castle there), so she walks in.

well. um. meredith set up a failsafe--so azure wouldn't escape--where anybody that goes in can't get out. she has cursed wolves prowling around and the statues at the entrance can bar exit, if need be.

azure also has his own magic at the perimeter and he very quickly realizes there's somebody on the castle grounds. that... is not good. so he rushes over and ohhhh no. a girl from the little town nearby. this will not end well.

chrysi doesn't realize azure's a monster when she first sees him. she just sorta sees his silhouette and hears his voice. which azure essentially says, "how... did you get in?" "through the front?" "............huh. well, you can't leave." "excuse me?"

clearly, they don't get off on the right foot. azure jst sorta lets chrysi stay in the wing opposite him, because he doesn't want to deal with her attacking him (she started throwing rocks at him and he didn't like it. no thank you, he will not deal with that). chrysi very quickly figures out that everyone in this castle is super fucking cursed though.

cue the slowburn, awkward running-into-each-other part of living here. chrysi jumps a little whenever she sees azure and his monstrous features, but she slowly begins to wonder what it would look like to draw him. he's not all bad looking.

by nature of her being curious, again, chrysi does eventually go to the west wing. there she finds old portraits of azure and realizes that he used to be a really pretty boy, before all this. still beautiful, but definitely cursed, and definitely cursed in a way that isn't easy on him (she's seen him accidentally cut himself on his claws once or twice ;;;;; )

well, azure isn't happy about her being there. he lashes out a bit, which... doesn't frighten chrysi, but it definitely pushes her over the edge and has her go "fuck it" and she figures she can escape over one of the castle walls.

doesn't end well. azure has to save her from wolves, and now she has to patch him up--which azure doesn't want her to do. she quickly figures out why when she forces him to take off his shirt so she can clean the wound. he's covered in scars from meredith, who gives him a new one whenever he refuses her :(((( they're all dark red and purple, like they never healed, or they were infected, or something.... it makes chrysi feel rlly bad for him.

they strike up an uneasy alliance after that. azure only asks that chrysi stay in her room once a month (during meredith's visits, but chrysi doesn't know that) and that she ask permission before entering his wing. but he shows her the library and he's pretty sure she just fell in love with being here a little bit.

(i should mention that there's small friendship moments happening w/ the servants that r objects, but i'm thinking abt chryzure too hard, so that's why i keep glossing over it ;;;;;; )

anyway, chrysi sneaks out during one of meredith's visits bc... of course (the first visit, since chrysi's been here), and she very quickly figures out that meredith was the one that cursed azure and has been scarring him. she overhears their conversation and her heart breaks a little bit for azure :(( later, when meredith leaves, chrysi manages to corner azure and demand he show her where meredith hurt him. he's mostly concerned that chrysi was right there the entire time, and meredith could've hurt her. but chrysi disregards his concern.

they start falling in love right abt now, i think. whoops, jst tumbled into it.

anyway, azure starts finding reasons to hang out more in the library and the cemetery. what a coincidence that chrysi's there! so crazy,..,,,,... anyway, they kiss about it.

oh yeah, true love won’t break this curse! so they’re definitely in love with each other, which is good for azure since he’s been so lonely and touch-starved, but he’s still beast azure :( but chrysi likes the way his tail will wrap around her, and the way he very very lightly brushes her hair from her face, even though he’s constantly worried abt his claws, and she loves his fangs, and she loves everything about him :) so, consider that, azure.

they have a makeshift ball because they’re head over heels in love w each other at this point (they haven’t, like, put words to it, but it’s generally understood between them) and they want to have a little fun ;;;;

it goes great until meredith shows up. off-schedule. azure, in particular, panics. he pushes chrysi behind him, wraps his tail around her, and he begs meredith to not hurt chrysi at all.

turns out that over the last couple visits, meredith could tell there was something different in the way azure would act. she’d actually been getting close to getting him to agree to being with her, but suddenly he withdrew. she’s not happy about chrysi being here in azure’s arms, instead of her.

but hey, she’s not unfeeling! she won’t kill chrysi like she killed his family, and she won’t turn her into an object like everyone else. meredith says chrysi’s too pretty for that. but she won’t tell azure precisely what she’ll do to chrysi—she just drags chrysi out and away from the castle.

aaaaand shoves her directly in the arms of elias bloom <3 turns out they were in this together! that’s how meredith got the hint that chrysi was with azure at the castle in the first place.

elias traps chrysi with him, getting particularly mad when chrysi refuses to marry him once again. he finally realizes that the reason chrysi keeps turning him down is because of azure (…. that’s not the reason why, but yeah, chrysi would gladly marry azure over elias bloom). so elias ends up turning the townspeople against azure and he swears to march to the castle to kill azure, so that he won’t have to deal with him again.

meredith is obviously not pleased with this development. but she manages to convince elias to only brutalize azure a little bit—she’ll take care of azure from there, assuring that this time, there will be no one to stumble in on azure and his cursed state and fall in love with him. in fact, a large part of the brutalizing is purely to convince chrysi that azure is dead.

they—elias bloom, meredith, and the townspeople—march their way up to the castle in the meantime.

what they didn’t consider was that chrysi was very determined to get back to azure to warn him. with a little help (one of her besties frm the castle 👁 👁), she manages to spring herself out.

the siege is well under way by the time chrysi gets to the castle. everyone is raising hell, which is convenient for chrysi to sneak her way back up to azure’s chambers.

there she finds elias bloom and azure in a scuffle. but when she goes to help, she finds meredith there. meredith attacks chrysi, now thoroughly furious that chrysi’s managed to find a way to ruin every single one of her plans.

she drags chrysi out by her hair once she manages to subdue her and calls the battle between azure and elias to a stop. from there, she says that she will slit chrysi’s throat if azure continues to refuse her—so now better be the moment he agrees to marry meredith, because otherwise his pretty little chryseis will be dead.

so. mild issue with this declaration. elias bloom is there, and he is very, very obsessed with chrysi.

meredith did not consider this aspect. she had tunnel vision on azure.

well, elias bloom replies by launching himself at meredith (trust me, everyone was startled by this development. azure’s like “??????? he was trying to kill me just seconds ago, and now he’s helping me????????” and chrysi’s like “oh good fucking LORD, he truly will not stop at nothing to have me”), which in turn causes meredith to topple off the castle. she doesn’t manage to get a grip on the edge, so she falls to her death.

thing is, she still very much so had chrysi in her grasp. so chrysi goes sailing over the edge as well, to elias bloom’s horror—and to azure’s terror.

he manages to grab chrysi’s wrist before she can fall to her death like meredith though! his claws scratch her up a bit, but he’s willing to overlook this pain he’s causing her on this one occasion, because at least it means that she’s alive.

they both share a moment of relief, before azure realizes that maybe he should pull chrysi up from the precipice before they have their heartfelt reunion.

problem: as soon as azure pulls chrysi up enough for her to grasp the edge, elias bloom stabs him through the ribs, cutting straight into his heart.

azure crumples like a wet paper towel as chrysi screams in horror.

elias bloom hoists chrysi up the rest of the way, even though she’s kicking and biting at him the entire time, screaming and crying for azure.

a scuffle ensues, and one that ends very poorly for elias bloom (read: she stabs him with that same knife and then she conveniently kicks him off the building as well <3). chrysi then scrambles for azure.

she’s trying to stem the blood, but there’s so much of it, and azure already looks so pale. she fears the worst—that she can’t do a thing for him.

azure smiles at her like he can read her thoughts and informs her that she’s already done so much for him—even if he dies right here and now, then at least he was able to experience companionship and love. he thought that he would die as this beast without receiving an ounce of love his entire life.

then he rattles out a final breath and goes very, very still in chrysi’s arms.

uh. this does not go over well for chrysi.

so she’s screaming and crying over his body—crying so hard that she doesn’t notice when her tears go golden and her hand over his heart starts glowing—but very soon it’s clear that chrysi’s doing something magical.

she’s not looking down (can hardly manage to see anything around her golden tears), but if she did, she’d realize that his dark scars were paling, silvering, thinning, until they were barely noticeable, that his fingertips were no longer razor-sharp, that he’d lost the horns and the red, pointed tips of his ears, that he no longer had a tail.

and also—most importantly—that he is alive.

she almost jumps out of her skin when she feels his warm hand on her lower back and his questioning voice. actually, she almost pushes him off the edge of the building in her shock.

but he’s alive! miraculously! azure is also very surprised by this development, but after everything he just went through, he’s not about to argue over it.

it quickly becomes evident that everyone else in the castle has been broken from meredith’s spell as well! this isn’t really due to chrysi, even though i’d love to give her even more of a main character moment—but rather due to the fact that meredith died from her injuries sustained from her fall (she didn’t die on impact, which honestly sounds like a miserable fucking death. good.) that’s also why azure went back to being human.

that said, chrysi definitely did bring him back from death, so there’s her main character moment <3

well, amongst everyone cheering her on, and azure being overwhelmed and in love with her, chrysi passes the fuck out. it takes a lot of energy to bring somebody back from the dead, no matter how recently he’d died, and in addition to that, she just killed the guy that’s been making her life a living hell for the past couple years. give her a moment.

when she wakes up, it’s in azure’s arms in his bed <333 he’s stroking her hair, and chrysi’s realizes that she’ll be able to have a happy ending and that so will azure and :3 it’s neat! anyway. yeah.

#.asks #m.filly✨#s.chryzure #HI i took forever replying to this slkdfjsdlkfjdsl #i get sleepy tired tho :(((#ANYWAY i DO have other versions of this au that are more suited for the original fairy tale #BUT i want azure to be a sad pretty monster boy and i want chrysi to be absolutely infatuated w him #from the get go #so this is MY self-indulgent au!!!! i get to choose how things pan out!!!!

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chryzure-archive · 2 years

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PLEASE. ANASTASIA IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE ANIMATED MOVIES EVER (never watched the musical tho soz) AND THIS AU… IM VERY VERY VERY INTRIGUED. I NEED TO KNOW MORE. plus, more opportunities for chrysi to wear pretty dresses and jacks to be an idiot in love w her <333

OKAY OKAY OKAY, I NEED YOU TO KNOW THAT I’VE LITERALLY BEEN LISTENING TO THE ENTIRE SOUNDTRACK ON REPEAT LATELY AS I’VE BEEN PUTTING EVERYTHING TOGETHER FOR MY AU, SO THIS IS SUPER APPRECIATED!!! (and the musical is okay, there’s no curses and the like. I do enjoy the music! I don’t love the story.)

[under a read-more bc I’m not concise and I like planning out my fics while explaining them]

So I’ve been playing with the idea of seeing young!Jacks as a prince (still magical, still the Prince of Hearts, but also it opens up to 14 y/o him being bitten by feral Princess Chrysi, which is important to me. Like, medically crucial.) at the ball thrown by Chrysi’s parents. They share a brief dance, then Chrysi’s called up to her family, where her aunt (Marienna) gifts her the necklace. She’s happy about being promised to be taken to Paris (? I’m playing with the world a bit and making it fantasy-based), and she goes off to play in the wintery gardens. Where Jacks annoys her enough to make her bite him. Which is totally fair, honestly.

But because she was out in the gardens causing mischief (she made Jacks cry, but he’d never admit it), she’s sent to bed early. Which means she missed the whole “death curse” proclamation from Ayon. The next time she wakes up, it’s in the middle of the night to a burning palace. Marienna and Jacks are the ones trying to get her out--somehow they get separated from Jacks (he gets hit pretty hard on the head), but they manage to get to the train station. Events proceed as they do in the movie at this part.

Note: Ayon’s reasoning for the death curse has to do with being thrown out of the palace on grounds of being cruel and evil and generally a bad dude all around. Clarence is Aria’s second husband. He’s bitter about being taken from his position of power, and since he was Aria’s first husband, he was hoping that all of the Solstice family would mean he would end up becoming the new monarch. He didn’t anticipate karma coming around to kill him (or send him in a weird cursed limbo state, where he’s rotting alive). He’s still a little bitter about it, all these years later.

Additional note that I couldn’t think of a fluid way of bringing it up: Jacks loved Aria. Chrysi’s mom was really sweet and cool to him and he always wanted her attention. I just think that in another AU, it would be fun to play with that dynamic of her being the mom he wished he could’ve had.

Jump to the present--Chrysi’s being kicked from the orphanage finally, aged 24 (she stuck around for a couple years because she was crucial to keeping the littles under control). She goes to the biggest city nearby, with her little cat in tow (I’m debating which cat it’ll be, but I love Catster so much that it might end up being him ;;;).

In that same town, Jacks is plotting a way to trick Marienna into thinking her niece is still alive. Why? Well, in the time of the original ball to present, he wound up getting involved with a certain someone (Tella) and got his comeuppance via losing his title and his reputation dragged through the mud. His ability to make people love him isn’t enough to counteract it, so he’s trying to clear his name by so generously finding the lost princess Chryseis and returning her to her aunt. Maybe then, Tella will look his way. He’s nothing if not dedicated.

Simeon thinks this is all a very bad idea, but he’s going along with it because this is his only chance to get back to Luna Rune right now.

Jacks and Simeon are only friends because Jacks knows what’s going on with Simeon’s heart situation. Simeon doesn’t like it, but eventually he began to actually view Jacks as a friend. Which is... worse. Infinitely worse.

They meet Chrysi (now going by Chrys, which is close enough, and easy enough for Jacks to lie and say that she’s actually Chryseis) and convince her to join them. Jacks doesn’t think she’s the real princess at all ( “I have her teeth marks etched into my arm forever. If she were still alive, I’d know.” ), but Chrysi thinks it wouldn’t hurt to see if Marienna recognizes her. Simeon hates all of this situation. He misses his girlfriend so much.

So there’s the whole train situation (complete with Chrysi tearing into Jacks viciously, and Simeon’s keeping track of the amount of times she’s put him in his place. Approximately fifty-seven, and he thinks that number will increase exponentially along the course of their journey. It’s going to be a fun ride). Ayon’s woken up in the nether-wherever-he-is when he realizes that his curse was never completed. So he sends his little minions to send the train off its tracks to kill all of them.

Doesn’t work, Chrysi senses something’s wrong (which Jacks thinks is absurd, even when she’s right), so they manage to narrowly avoid death. Simeon believes in Chrysi’s sixth sense, but Jacks is still skeptical.

Even still, they make it to the boat--all the while, Simeon’s quizzing Chrysi on her past + manners of royalty, and all that. Jacks will chime in every now and then, but he never explains why he knows so much about the life of a noble. Simeon doesn’t answer Chrysi when she asks him what that’s all about.

Oh, and during this entire time, Jacks has had Simeon picking out Chrysi’s “undercover” outfits, because he doesn’t want her to be too noticeable, but he doesn’t want her looking “homeless”. Chrysi takes great offense to what he says, even if he has a little bit of a point. This is important because Jacks finally picks out a dress for her himself once they get to the boat. (A dress Simeon made, but he’s not worried about the details).

Big mistake on Jacks’s part, because now he’s noticing just how pretty Chrysi is. But of course she’s pretty--she has to pull off being a princess. Princesses are pretty. He chose her well.

But still, Simeon notices there’s something going on between Chrysi and Jacks--especially obvious when Jacks can’t tear his eyes from her, and even more obvious when he’s “teaching” her how to dance (even though she already seems to know how to).

The romantic tension on this boat is astronomical. Chrysi’s clueless to it. Jacks is desperately trying to ignore it. Simeon thinks he’s getting a rash from it.

(I’m sprinkling in more near-death situations that Chrysi’s steered them away from btw, but I haven’t decided what. But it’s important that you know her sixth sense is working just fine, untillll--)

Ayon sends his little nightmare demons to try and lure Chrysi off the edge of the ship. She’s having a lovely dream in the meantime, though it quickly takes a turn for the worst.

Jacks is the one that wakes up, sensing something’s wrong. He finds Chrysi’s bed empty and the wrong feeling turns into panic.

He finds Chrysi tipping over the edge of the boat. He only just manages to get to her in time, hauling her back from danger while his heart is pounding in his chest (he doesn’t want to think about it, not at all). When Chrysi wakes up, she starts crying into his chest and Jacks is suddenly struck by how small and fragile she’s been this entire time.

Okay, maybe he’s catching feelings.

Simeon’s alarmed by the news that Chrysi almost died the next morning. He wasn’t informed of any of this danger, when he probably should’ve been. Oh well.

They get to (Paris? Fantasy-Paris???) event-free afterwards (though Chrysi and Jacks are getting closer, but they will deny it furiously). They meet with Luna Rune (Simeon’s so fucking excited!!! He can see his girlfriend again!), who puts them in contact with Kio, Marienna’s right-hand man. They have to get through him to be put in contact with Marienna herself.

But, oh dear! She’s decided to stop holding out on the hope her niece is alive! So she won’t see anyone else!

Kio still meets with them, because why not + he and Jacks get along (red flag). They’re catching up--Chrysi mentioning snippets of what she remembers (which are just details Jacks and Simeon trained her on), until she mentions that she used to be a nightmare child. She even bit a boy so hard on the arm that he started crying and bleeding! Crazy, right?

Jacks panics. Because there’s no way. No fucking way.

He abruptly leaves in the middle of the tea party to get fresh air, which isn’t fresh enough for him. He almost starts hyperventilating, even though it really doesn’t matter as much as he thinks it does. Simeon finds him (and he’s mad, because that’s really rude!!! And Chrysi’s inside, freaking out!!!!) and tells him as much: “Even if she is the real princess, that means... so what? We aren’t lying to her aunt this time. It’s a win-win situation!” “It means that it wasn’t in the job description!” “... You made the job description!”

Jacks eventually realizes Simeon’s technically right, so he returns--though not without Simeon telling Jacks that he needs to tell Chrysi the truth of what he’s doing + why he’s doing it. It won’t end well if he leads Chrysi on while trying to get with another princess this entire time.

Chrysi’s acting coldly towards him because he abandoned her, but... sigh. Simeon said he found them a hotel room (while he stays with Luna Rune, separately, because... well, they want their alone time!!!), but they get there, and oh nooooo.... only one bed..... what a shame.

They have a pretty heated argument, before Jacks admits he’s wrong, which stuns Chrysi. She didn’t realize he was capable of taking responsibility.

He asks her if she wants to go out and enjoy a night on the town. She agrees tentatively, because he has saved her life and she owes him one now, right? (Jacks looks really uncomfortable when she says this though, and she doesn’t know why).

They go out and enjoy a night out, and when they get back, she’s kind enough to let him sleep in the bed as well. After all, it was an exhausting day, and it’s a little rude to have him sleep on the rinky-dink couch after all this time. He’s not about to say no.

But they barely sleep. They’re both just staring up at the ceiling silently. Then Chrysi breaks the silence, because she can’t stand it.

Then they don’t sleep anyway, because they’re talking to each other all night. Jacks finally admits to himself that his heart is beating because he loves Chrysi, even though it sorta-beat for Tella. He thinks this is more than what he had with Tella.

The next day is the ballet. Kio set up a rendezvous with Marienna against his better judgement, and Jacks was planning on convincing Marienna of Chrysi being her niece.

He begins to do Chrysi’s hair for the ballet (brushing it until it shines, braiding it, weaving little jewels into it... just normal, every day things for a man to do for his not-crush), but then Luna Rune bursts into the room (Simeon gave her the key) and forces Jacks out--because “neither of you get to see us until we’re ready” “This isn’t a wedding!” “I don’t care! Get out!”

Then that starstruck look of love scene happens and... yeah. Yeahhhh. Jacks thinks his heart is about to burst from his chest.

They end up holding hands through the entire ballet, because Jacks noticed she was tearing up her program into a million little pieces and he wanted to distract her. Complicated feelings all around, even though they aren’t complicated and they like each other soso much ;;;;

Jacks excuses himself to talk Marienna into talking with Chrysi, but she refuses him point-blank. Jacks is frustrated, because he did not go through almost dying from a death curse and saving Chrysi from said death curse and falling in love with her for Marienna to say no.

So when Marienna leaves the ballet, he hijacks her car (and got a lovely earful from her the entire way over) and drives her to the hotel he and Chrysi were staying at.

Marienna reluctantly goes up to see Chrysi (because this is the only way she can think to get Jacks to leave her alone). When she walks in, however, she can immediately see Clarence in her face and Aria with her hair. She’s stunned, but then she and Chrysi end up talking deep into the night about their past and princesses and family.

Jacks decides to crash at Simeon and Luna Rune’s place for the night, happy that everything turned out perfectly (even though he’s adjusted his plans to now include Chrysi. He no longer wants to be part of the noble class for Tella, but for Chrysi--so he can properly court her, as the Prince of Hearts untarnished).

Unfortunately for him, Marienna guessed at his original plans and informed Chrysi that he was probably already running back to Tella to try and win her over. That his name would be cleared and he’d be allowed into high-class functions as soon as Marienna publicly announced he’d returned her long-lost niece to her.

Now, this is the first time Chrysi’s heard of Jacks’s fling with the princess, and she’s understandably confused and irritated.

The next day, she confronts him about it. Jacks doesn’t know what to do, so he falls into self-sabotage, as he’s prone to do, and he hates himself as he admits, yes, he used Chrysi to get back to this other princess, and he’d surprised himself by finding the actual lost princess along the way. That pisses Chrysi off even more, because not only did he use her, but he was planning on lying to Marienna. She gives him a pretty hard slap to remember her by, then tells him that she doesn’t want him anywhere near her ever again. Fair enough, I guess.

He eventually goes to Marienna in secret and begs her to keep him out of the story of reuniting Chrysi with her. Understandably, Marienna’s confused--doesn’t he want to return to his Southern princess?--but Jacks says he stopped caring. He’ll leave quietly and let Chrysi enjoy her new life.

This is the most selfless he’s ever been, and it shocks Marienna, but she agrees to keep his involvement a secret. She also decides she won’t tell Chrysi of what Jacks asked of her--she doesn’t want her niece to get caught up in the Prince of Hearts.

Unfortunately for them, on the night of Chrysi’s crowning, Ayon decides to take matters into his own hands and kill Chrysi. Jacks is on his journey out of the country when he gets a really bad feeling (Chrysi’s suspicious sixth sense has infected him).

Chrysi gets lured into the gardens and--I’m sure you know what scene I’m talking about. There’s a whole reveal from Ayon, Chrysi starts to fight him + look for an exit to get away, and Jacks is stupid enough to step in to save her. Which works, but she’s still a little mad at him for putting himself in danger (anger aside, she still has feelings for him, regretfully).

During the scuffle, he gets knocked out--but Chrysi’s too far away to discern how bad his head injury is. She starts fighting Ayon with a frenzied fear, because she’s scared he’s killed Jacks. She eventually gets hold of his talisman and destroys it, which ends rather poorly for Ayon. The curse is unraveled, leaving Chrysi and Jacks in the wreckage of the gardens.

Chrysi tries to wake Jacks up, but he won’t immediately come to. She fears the worst and begins to cry. Buuuuut then he wakes up and she hits him directly in the face before he can see her tears. He’s irritated.

But then they run away together and it’s happy and romantic and the end. It’s a nice, happy little story :) (I’m trying to figure out how to add more drama tbh, I love hurting Jacks and making him cry <3)

But that’s what I have for now! I’m definitely going to change some things (I want to make it more magical), but there it is!!!

#.asks #m.kai💛#s.chrysijacks #i was writing all my favorite bits of this au last night and my eyes are still kinda burning from it #3000 words in one sitting bc brainrot bad <3 i was listening to 'in the dark of the night' on repeat the entire time RIP

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