|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:21 am
About a mile from the Pantheon Grace wandered slowly among a field of small grass mounds. Some were marked with stones, or makeshift wooden crosses. Some had flowers and others were bare. Since the mortals had arrived at the Pantheon they had been using the space to bury their dead. Some had been lost on the journey, others in the desperate weeks that followed Harmodius' rebirth of injuries and illness. Thankfully there were less and less fresh graves now. With Underworld strengthening his reign and his brother doing his job there were less and less souls to pester her. Though she missed them. They had been good company for a while.
As she moved between the graves she placed a flower from the bunch in her hand on each empty one. Her brother and sister weren't there. Her parents refused to bury their ashes until they knew they would not have to move again. Which she found mildly amusing. It's not like they were there anymore. They had gone to the underworld. Though she supposed it was no different from her recognising these unmarked graves.
She had grown up a lot since those early days among the gods, she was going to be tall like her father, she was already the same height as her mother and she was only fifteen. She wore a long embroidered skirt and shirt that Isra had given her, her wavy red hair plaited down her back. Round her neck she wore a chain with a white feather attatched to it. A gift from Nergal to protect her from harmful spirits.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:09 pm
 Some time ago, when his siblings had been asleep, his mother had told him of the mortals who had, a long time ago, aided her in her quest to go down to the Underworld by clearing the paths to the catacombs. She spoke of those who had lost their lives in their endeavors, of the guilt she had, and still did feel to that day. Of how she felt that it had been her folly to lead them to their ends.
About how Ankou had given them a proper burial... Here, among the others they had once known and loved. He often came to visit those graves, as if he could somehow have learned more about them that way. If only because his mother's grief had not passed completely, even to this very day.
Gods grieved in a way so different than mortals, so intensely.
As Grace continued to move along the makeshift graveyard she would eventually come across him, eyes locked on those two graves as if he'd been the one mourning. He remained silent and still.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:09 am
Grace had not really expected to see anyone else. Sometimes she came across families tending to graves but more often than not it was quiet and empty. Peaceful, she thought. The area her family lived in within the Pantheon was usually the opposite. Full of people and children playing loudly.
She spotted Kios as she walked down his row. Of course she did not recognise him in his new form. She was human and in her mind she did not expect people to become adults over night. She watched him a moment, she could recognise him as one of the gods, though he seemed deep thought. Perhaps he had known those burried before him. She crouched at the grave next to him and placed a flowed on the grassy mound, whispering a little prayer she had learned from her parents.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:49 pm
It was only when Grace came close that he noticed her, watching her through the veil as she put the flower on the grave. The god was silent until she was done with her prayer, strange eyes still looking her over.
"I can't say that I'm surprised to see you here." He said with a nod - he wasn't unfriendly at all - in fact, he sounded like he knew her perfectly. "How are you ? It's been awhile..."
Everyone else so far had recognized him - it never occurred to Akakios that Grace probably wouldn't.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 6:30 am
Grace looked up as she was addressed and smiled at the unfamiliar god. Though, perhaps not so unfamiliar as he seemed to know who she was and perhaps ... yes, there was something about him.
"A while ...?" She tilted her head to the side and studied him for a moment. She knew the gods were prone to change. Nergal had changed, Echo, and Cosine twice since she had first met her.
"Akakios?" She queried. It was his hair that gave it away, and perhaps an aura. "Is that you?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:32 am
In turn, her confusion seemed to confuse him in turn, until it finally occurred to him. Of course. She'd have no way to tell, wouldn't she ?
Except when she did, finally, guess, and he nodded in answer. "Yes. I am sorry - most people usually can recognize me anyway. It didn't occur to me that you probably don't feel what they had." His eyes were downcast, for a moment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:06 pm
"You don't need to apologise." Grace smiled and watched him a moment. it was crazy enough to think she had had gods as playmates but this. He looked like a proper adult.
"Congratulations though?" she grinned, "I just can't believe how fast you gods grow up. You'd think you had all the time in the world. I remember when you were born, and now you look like you're ten years older than me." She shook her head and looked down at her flowers. "Here, for you." she handed him one of them. They were nothing special, just wild flowers from the pantheon gardens.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 9:36 pm
"Thank you." He nodded. "I don't know, actually, why we grow so fast." Through he'd been impatient for something like this to happen for so long. "Maybe our powers grow too big, too strong, and they then just don't.... fit inside us anymore."
Well. it was certainly how that had felt like.
He blinked, surprised at the flower, then accepted it. "Thank you." He brought it close to smell it, careful of the veil. It might have been just a wild flower, but the god was treating it as if it was the most priceless rose.
"How have you been ? And your family ?" He finally asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:52 am
"That makes sense." Grace knelt on the grass and studied him curiously. He was dressed a little strangely she thought, but then he was a god. They were hardly your average being.
"My family are good. Really good actually. I have a new baby sister. She's called Rachel and is really cute. My mam and da want to leave to try and find the rest of our family. My aunt especially. But we heard there might be worse to come. Is it true?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 9:42 am
A new sister ? The thought was nearly strange to him. He and his siblings had always been the same age... Until now, that is. Through, maybe he'd know what it would feel like, one day, to be a big brother ?
"I'd like to see her, sometime. If I am not considered a bad omen, that is." He smiled, faintly. Really, mortals sometimes had the strangest superstitions. It wasn't like he was Death personified, or anything like that.
They were going to leave ? For a moment, Akakios was silent. It was hard to imagine Grace and her family leaving, since they had been there for the entirety of his life. And yet, he did understand the sorrow of not knowing. "I don't know." He admitted. "I don't think any of us know for sure. Except maybe Harmodius."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:48 am
"If my family were to consider you a bad omen then they would have to consider me one too. My gift is rarely welcomed. But not to worry, they are my family. I'm sure they would love you to meet them. You'd give mam a bit of a shock." She grinned and gestured to his appearence.
"Oh." She said softly. "Have you met him? Harmodius. I think I'd like to speak with him one day. He must be a very interesting god."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 4:17 pm
"I figure.., Is it weird, to see them ?" The child-like curiosity re-surfaced, with little warning. "What do they look like, the dead ? I can hear them, but... I can't see them." Unless his father allowed it, that is.
Maybe it was different ?
"I've met him... Twice ? Three times ?" He mused. If Creation's rebirth could even count as a meeting... " He can be a little confusing, sometimes... He asked me and Crys to mourn Universe. The sky. He was his son." He looked up, at the moon and the stars above. "...He's not going to come back. This... isn't him."
He couldn't see the difference, but it was what he'd been told, and he believed it. Believed it in the tears his godfather had cried.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:45 pm
Grace shrugged a little.
"It depends. Sometimes they look like they did when they were alive, very clear but not solid. Sometimes they are whisps and sometimes they can't be seen but I know they are there. I've seen them all my life. But only before they cross over. Once they have gone to the underworld they are gone. Of course. That's your uncle's work isn't it?" She smiled and tried to imagine the Universe personified.
"So this is like an imitation?" She looked up to the skies and watched the clouds move slowly above them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:55 pm
"So they don't all look the same..." He mused. "When my father extends his influence, they almost all look the same, beside the wisps. It made me wonder."
As if he needed a reason to be curious, really.
"Yeah, kind of. A facade, maybe. There's space and stars and skies but they're not... alive like they were, before." Now he actually tried to, he found it hard to explain - Grace had likely never thought of the sky as being alive, before.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:44 am
"Alive?" That was indeed an unusual concept, but it made sense, like the earth was. She looked up at the sky again and studied it, though it really did not look any different to her. "It's so strange knowing all this."
"I've been learning about gods. I think in the future I would like to serve one. I thought first that I wanted to serve your father but, I am not so sure. Not sure at all. I want to help those who have lost. My mam told me that back in our home planet, when someone dies you go to church and you talk to the priest and he gives you guidance. I'd like to do something like that I think."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
