Visits and Visions

Visits and Visions
She placed the Kantharos on the pedestal and the script lit up with golden light, drawing the darkness out of it. She picked it up and replaced it with the Locket, and it did the same, turning a polished gold. Then, she turned to him. 

“Alright, let’s go.” She grinned. “I think we’ve done more than enough damage.”



Enil was still there when they came back, and to his surprise, the basilisk asked to come with them. A large gate appeared near the shallow pool. Penelope carried the boy and he carried the young snake shifter. They walked from the darkness of the underworld into the bright daylight over Delphos. It looked nothing like Mage Tower any longer. In place of the black tower and the shitty town around it, goldstone building were growing out of the bedrock. A large fountain stood in the courtyard and a few paces away there was the opening of a well. A steady rolling bank of clouds surrounded the island and in the distance he could see the Wall of Shields still raging.

“It’s… beautiful,” he said, surprised that he could say that about the place that had taken so much from him. They walked toward the main buildings that looked the most complete. Enil drifted to the door. 

“Queen Rhiannon has been awaiting your arrival.”

The door opened and Rhiannon in a plain tunic stood in the doorway, pursing her lips. 

“A little warning that I’d be flying through a storm would have been nice.”

“It should have parted for you.”

“It did. It also cared me half to death.” She dropped her gaze to the boy and the shifter in his arms. “You’re a bit your for children.”

He scowled at her. “Very funny.”

They got the children settled, cleaned themselves up and ate a bit.

Rhiannon smiled a little. “You can meet him after you’ve rested a bit… though he’s probably not in much of a state to talk.”

Penelope opened her bag and pulled out the Kantharos. Rhiannon’s eyes widened as it started to fill with water from the Fountain.

“I think he’ll be just fine.”

Penelope goes in to administer the water, and Leandros dedicates to warming their bed against the chill that’s moved into the walls of the building. He wasn’t cold, but he knew Penelope would be. As predicted, she scurried in to the room and climbed in beside him, twining around him for warmth and shivering. 

“You knew.”

“... in another life, I was too late to save either of you.”

He kissed her forehead. “I can’t imagine how many times I’ve been too late to save you.”

She kissed his jaw. “Sleep for now. We’ve got a few loose ends to deal with before we kill Naos.”

He smiled, breathing in her scent and letting himself drift off.

The sound of a loom working carried into his dreams. The woman working didn’t look up or even seem to notice the world outside. She worked seemingly endlessly. Most of the tapestry was ugly, but each stitch was perfect. He walked around the back of it and caught a glimpse of a thread running along the backside that was a bright, vicious red. There was no red on the front side. 

So where was that thread going?



Leandros was wrenched from sleep by the sound of retching. He sat up to find Penelope across the room, leaning over a pot, head rest on her arm. He crossed the room, but she held up a hand. 

“You have to be sick because…” She laughed and threw a towel at him. He chuckled and sank onto the edge of the bed. “Are you okay?”

“You tried to teach me to fly, and I stand by my statement. I’d been an ourobourous in my first life, why would I be a monstrous, golden kite in any other?”

Leandros grimaced. “The flying didn’t go well?”

“You were so happy to teach me,” she moaned. “And, for the record, you are a fantastic teacher, but I am almost certain that the kite of the sun I struck down in the underworld—”

“You what?”

“—and then drank its blood and took its eye was punishing me because I can feel it curdling in my mouth and—” She gaggeed again. “It had better have been for a great, noble, and impossible to do without cause.”

He blinked and frowned. “I dreamed about court. Very boring nobles being boring.”

Terrified of him, yes, but boring.

“Lucky.”

He leaned on his knees. “Since we’re talking about these dream memories… do you think we’ll remember it all?”

She didn’t look at him. “Part of me… hopes not, but I can’t see how we can keep avoiding all the pitfalls without know how those other lives went and are currently going.” She lowered her head. “And of course I immediately wonder if there’s a way to undo it all so it never happened.”

Leandros hummed. He hadn’t thought of undoing anything, whatever that entailed, but he knew there were parts of his life he’d rather had never happened.

“If that’s an option, I want to consider it.” Penelope bobbed her head. “You don’t.”

“I’m scared of finding out what pain I may have caused you just by existing.”

“If we’re… working on the god theory, I don’t think I would exist without you.” She shuddered. “And that’s not something I fear. You’ve only ever been a light in my very dark life.”

She shut her eyes. “I want to believe that.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Something you want to share?”

“At the rate we’re going, I don’t think I’ll have to…” She looked out the window. “I meant what I said about Naos, Erebos. For as long as he lives, it won’t end. It’ll all be for nothing.”

“This is your scheme, Penelope. How does it end?”

She turned to him slowly. “With you.”

He smiled. “I like that ending, however we have to get there.”

He pushed to his feet. “Now, what do you say to a trip to Erobos to reunite my mortal family?”

She chuckled and nodded. She drank from a small vial and bathed before they left. Mordas wasn’t awake, but apparently, he had been up early and he was brought to tears when Rhiannon told him that both he and Diomeios were alive.

Rhiannon came down the stairs as they were heading out. He didn’t even ask if she wanted to come. He just offered them both his arm and escorted them to the gate in the house. The scent of rot that hung in the air of the mainland had lessened a great deal. The city was quiet save for the flow of water, the wind, and the rustle of trees. 

The temple was floating again if the slow trickle through the channels in the ground was any indication. 

“In a few months, all the trees will start growing again,” Penelope said. “A few years, and it’ll be completely restored.”

They headed up the main steps and entered the large hall. A servant came out to greet them, but she seemed startled to see them. 

“We need to see Laurentius."