A couple of days have passed since the last time they were on the top of the temple.
Theos sat on the ledge, his hand intertwined with Lapis, his head leaning on hers. He stared into the still sealed, stony city gates. People stopped gathering around the gates after the first day, with only a few going over to the gate to try their luck.
“Couple of days, huh?” He huffed.
“Apis is holding a large grudge within that small head,” she replied. "He is paying from his family's own coffers to cover this."
Theos had tried his best to find a way out. The guards threatened him with the dungeons at first, then the pit, when he tried to bribe them. He used the remaining silver for that as well.
He sold the citar to one of the caravans for extra pieces – almost double its price – which was the highlight of this situation thus far.
He tried finding secret paths, some climbable side in the mountain, and even getting smuggled – the smuggler refused, even with the promise of a piece of gold, which he did not have. A piece of gold worthed nothing with him in the pit.
He just had to hope whatever Heras planned was going to work and that he was going to be okay.
“I'm sure he is going to be okay,” Lapis swung their hands playfully, “he sounds strong, this Hera's.”
“I hope so, and he is," he nodded. "At least I got to spend the time in quality company,” he smiled.
“Speaking of quality company,” she took out the bone charm, simple and carved with symbols, adorned with a smoothed and rounded gemstone in the center. “A gift.”
“This is the charm you bought when we met,” he frowned. “Did you plan on giving me this all along?”
“I have-”
“An eye for these things,” He sighed. “Yeah. you told me.”
She nodded smugly. “This is a charm of protection,” she said, “it is not magical, it only has words on it. ‘May the owner of this charm be safe from the evils of the world and the underone’,” she put the charm in his hand. “Maybe it will make you think of me when we aren’t together.”
Theos dangled the charm in front of his eye, “I won’t need this to think of you all the time.”She punched him in the shoulder, joking. “What is that stone in the middle?”
“It’s a fire agate,” she said, “it felt like the right stone for you.”
“Why is that?” he frowned.
“Because it is the stone of the brave and passionate,” she replied. “And I’ve got an eye for this kind of thing.”
“One day I’ll make you tell me why you are so sure about that,” he closed his hand around the charm. “I don’t know what to say… Thanks.”
“Just make sure to keep your friend away from the city when you find him,” she said, “Don’t want to watch the horrible ways Apis might torture him before he dies.”
“He will have to catch him first,” Theos grinned. “I might let him train me some more so I can kick that guy into the pit.”
“You will be too late by the time you are that strong,” she smirked. “I’d have kicked him down myself.”
“Speaking of Apis…” Theos grumbled as he saw the group of guards in the temple’s clearing. The man was healed, now, but the wounds were still showing from the high perch they sat on. The man did not come to Lapis for healing, and she enjoyed that peace and quiet, she said. He enjoyed it too, if he was being honest.
“Don’t worry,” she smiled, swinging her legs. “I’ll protect you from the big bad guy.”
“How chivalrous,” he grumbled. “I have feelings, you know, and this kind of bullying makes me feel bad.”
She squinted at him and he squinted back. “Fine, I’ll allow you to fight him in my honor.”
“But not any time soon,” Theos quickly amended. “Perhaps when you have an eye for me defeating him.”
“Deal.”
“Alright,” she stood and stretched, cracking her shoulders and back. “Let’s go.”
“Sure,” he rolled backwards and landed on his feet before giving her a smirk.
“One day you will hurt yourself with this move,” she said as she moved to the arena. “Let's focus on you hurting others, instead.”
“So violent,” he shook his head as he joined her on the opposite side of the arena. “Do you really think that dagger dance is something that can be used for combat?”
She talked with him about it yesterday, and he was still skeptical about the idea. The dagger dance was an age long tradition, and he had learned a bunch of variants in his tribe. They would do them at weddings, or in honor of a great someone’s death, or after a good trade, or…
Okay, they used the dagger dances a lot. Never once did he see his people fight using the movements of the dance to combat.”
“Just because you don’t know how to use them doesn't make them just fancy moves,” she thought for a moment. “Well, it does make them fancy movements, until you know how to use them.”
“You suck at teaching,” he took out his broken dagger – still in the hilt – with a twirl and spun it in the air before grabbing it.
“See,” she pointed, “that’s a useless fancy move.”
“Looks cool,” he smiled. Heras taught him how to do it, and even though he agreed it was useless in a fight, it still was fun to learn.
“You see,” Lapis ignored him as she continued. “I saw you when you danced in the blue crescent. You and the other people moved together in the dance, you didn’t practice with them, you didn’t think about them hitting you, you all just danced and moved your daggers, just a hair's breadth away from each other.”
“Well, yeah,” he frowned, “because everyone that knows the dance knows to keep a specific distance away from the others?”
“You did not account for different limb lengths, their weapons not being uniform, you did not even cut a stray hair off as you spun wildly,” she said. “You can know the dance, you can’t know that every other person, different heights and blades, wouldn’t hit you. They can’t know you wouldn’t hit them.”
“I don’t get it,” he flipped the dagger into the air and caught it back a few times, it was almost an absent-minded thing now.
“Just like this dagger flip thing,” she smiled. “The dance, the thing you don’t even think about because you are so good at… fighting is the same.”
She circled the arena, looking at her feet as she did. “Like breathing, like swallowing, the moment you begin thinking about it you start forgetting how to do it. So…”
“So I must dance while stabbing people until I can do it in the back of my mind?” He raised his eyebrow.
“What happens if someone slips, his dagger moves too close, or the movement isn’t precise?” she asked him, her tone edging to that dangerous voice.
“I lean away,” he said, it was obvious enough. No one will just trust the other guy to hold their distance without also keeping an eye on the blades. He just didn’t realize he was doing it without thinking. “Yeah, I also try to keep the blade far enough, while making sure I wouldn’t hit the others.”
“You need to readjust the way you think,” she said, suddenly lunging towards him and throwing her hand, then arm, forwards, like a spear. He moved his head just enough to the side so it wouldn't smack him straight in the nose. “My hand is a dagger, and we are dancing. Dodge the blade during the dance.”
The flurry followed, and he tried his best to dodge them, he began to fail soon after and the strikes began glancing at his face, and eventually, he was hit in the nose.
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“Why did I manage to hit you?” she stopped striking and stood straight, moving away to make distance once more.
“Because you are aiming well,” he rubbed his nose. The blow made him see stars and it threatened to make his nose bleed. “And my face is a nice target.”
“You began thinking,” she said before she lunged again. He leaned away and the dance began anew. “You tried to see where the blows came at you from.”
He didn’t answer as he tried to avoid getting hurt. He failed. Another blow to the side of his face, near his ear. “Ouch!” he yelped.
“Oh, toughen up,” she laughed. “You do well at the beginning, then you start failing. You are trying to think, and it makes you nervous, it makes your reactions slower.”
“You are not good at teaching,” Theos repeated.
“I just need to attack you enough that you will stop thinking,” she grinned before striking again and he returned to dodging the relentless blows.
-
Theos collapsed on the arena’s floor, struggling to breathe as the sparring finished. Lapis sat beside him, also breathing heavily.
“You think you got better?” she said, words coming out laboriously before she joined him on the ground. They were both on their backs, facing opposite directions, heads close to each other.
“I don’t know,” he shook his head, taking a deep breath. He didn’t think he would ever get better, but that didn’t sound like the truth either. He really didn’t know.
“Practice makes perfect, they say,” she took a deep breath, then exhaled it. “You will get better.”
“With you beating me this hard?” he broke into a chuckle. “I’ll die first.”
“I’m going easy on you,” she laughed. “One day I’ll use all my strength, and you will have no choice but to dodge so you won't die.”
“That sounds…” he blinked, “terrifying, actually.”
They stayed on the ground, catching their breaths and watching the darkening sky.
“I was thinking,” he broke the silence.
“What were you thinking?” she said, and he could hear the smile in the tone.
“I was trying to think in a calm and quiet place about what Heras found, and now I have to think about not thinking,” he hummed, “and about not falling asleep.”
“This is a calm and quiet place, quite serene, in a way,” she replied, “the not thinking part is your most pressing problem. You need to know when to stop thinking, and when to think. You need to figure out how to not think before you can do that.”
“I suppose,” he turned to his side to look at her. “I keep getting this awful headache when I am here.”
“You still have that headache?” she turned her head, frowning.
“Not as strong,” he thought, “it is like someone is pressing on my head from all sides, right now, instead of that spear through the head one from before.”
“You get some weird ways to describe headaches,” she mumbled.
“But you understood what I meant when I used those descriptions.”
“Mhm,” she closed her eyes. “Perhaps you are feeling Dion,” she said in a gentle tone.
“I am?” he knit his eyebrows. “Doesn’t feel like it.”
“And what do you know about feeling gods?” she asked.
More than she should know, he thought. “Horrible headaches are enough to avoid interacting with them, or wanting to be around one,” he grumbled.
“Dion doesn’t want you around either,” she replied.
“Did she tell you that?” he smirked. The smirk left his face when she looked at him, expression all serious.
“Yes.”
“Never been scorned by a goddess before,” he blinked. “That actually hurts.”
“Don’t worry,” Lapis smiled again. “I told her I wanted you around.”
“Oh,” he searched for her hand and caressed it gently. “I’m satisfied with that coming from the only person I would actually care if they wanted to have me around.”
“How sweet,” she replied. “Theos?”
“Hm?”
“I want to tell you something,” her words shuddered, “I don’t want you to panic or something, or…”
“You can tell me if you want,” he said.
“Yeah but if you just run away after hearing it or just get these weird ideas or what if-”
“Woah, woah,” Theos sat up and looked at her. “Take a deep breath and calm down.”
Lapis took a deep breath.
“You are kinda cute when you are panicking,” he grinned.
“I’m not panicking,” she stood up, “I’m just… this is serious, don’t laugh!” she slapped his shoulder. The shoulder slapping made him laugh harder and that in turn made her more angry, and it circled back to both of them laughing. And it lasted a good while before it stopped.
“My sides hurt,” he heaved.
“This is all your fault,” she huffed out, beads forming on the corners of her eyes. “I haven’t laughed this hard since I was a kid.”
“I’m glad I made you laugh this hard, then,” he said.
They went quiet, and he waited for her to bring the subject up on her own, she eventually did. “The real reason I’m so important here,” she began, “is because Dion chose me… I will become the next Astral of Shinar.”
The silence that followed was so deep, that even the wind went quiet. Lapis watched him, scanning his face for any signs of… of what? Rejection? He thought about it for a moment, and he found it surprising that he did not need to think about it any more than that.
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay?” she blinked.
“Yeah,” he said, scratching his head. “I don’t think I care.”
“Wha-” she stuttered. “What do you mean you don’t care?”
“Does being an Astral change you?” he tilted his head.
“I mean I would have the powers of a goddess at the tips of my fingers-”
“I don’t mean it like that,” he interrupted her. “I mean you would still be Lapis. You wouldn’t be this weird mix of Dion and Lapis-” he frowned, trying to figure out how to explain this. “You would still be the girl I like.”
She stared at him blankly.
“I don’t care if you stay this mischievous, grudge holding, strangely strong girl that I got to know during the past few days in Shinar,” he continued when she did not respond. “I would need to figure out how to find work in the city so I can stay close to you though,” he hummed. “I don’t think I can do much so maybe I’ll have to go back to the outposts and-”
She shushed him, placing her fingers on his lips.
“You don’t care,” she squinted.
“I don’t,” he nodded, and he was surprised that he meant every word.
She sat there, dumbstruck. Theos thought she looked like the most beautiful thing under the moon and stars tonight.
“Well, since we are sharing secrets and fears,” he decided to break the uncomfortable silence. “I actually met another being,” he said, his voice going lower. She watched him, quiet, so he decided to continue. “When I was in the outpost before I got attacked by the shade…”
He began telling her the story, of the bat, of the fight, of how the mines collapsed and he found himself deep within the mountain. How he found a great underground river – that part made her more interested, but still quiet – then he began telling her about Akh-Ba. Theos told her about what he could remember – leaving out the parts where he was injured and the parts about how he nearly lost control of his bladder while running away from the shade – up until the part where he left the cave.
“So…” Theos shrugged when he finished.
Dion looked back towards the pit, worry showing in her eyes. “I don’t know what to say,” she said.
“I know,” he dropped back on his back. “You trusted me with your burden, I decided to share some of mine,” he put his arms behind his head and watched the moon. “It is only fair, after all.”
“What am I supposed to say to that?” she asked.
“Whatever you want,” he huffed. “Get angry, ask me how I hid that, perhaps, and if you don’t want to associate with the filthy person that talked to what you might consider an evil god…” he left the rest unspoken.
She did not say anything and he decided to stay quiet as well. He closed his eyes and waited for her to ask him to leave, or just to storm off. He hoped that she would stay, and say she did not care either.
“I need time to think about this,” she said eventually.
“Yeah,” he grunted. “Guess I’ll leave you to that then.”
Theos stood up, and patted his clothes off, getting off sand and dirt that weren’t there. He left the temple unhindered, even though somewhere in his heart he wished that she told him to stop.
-
“Why did I have to be so stupid?” he hissed, emptying the mug and paying for another. “Why did I have to tell her about any of that?”
The man watched him, unimpressed. He took the piece of copper and poured him two more mugs of that muted blow. “I hope they will open the gates sometime soon.”
“Nooo, I had to act all cool and share my secrets and be fair,” he grabbed a mug and downed half of it before he put it down. “I hope that they would open the gates, so I could disappear from here.”
“Don’t you have someone else to bother?” the man grumbled. “Ruin someone else's day or something?”
“You suck at this tending thing,” Theos grumbled. “We should be chatting, a back and forth, to distract me from my woes.”
“I’m not your mother,” the man simply said.
“Yeah,” Theos planted his face on the counter. “You suck.”
“What in the name of Dion is this commotion outside?” one of the patrons shouted. “Can’t hear myself singing over here.”
“No one wants to hear your ugly voice,” another man said, cheers and laughs followed.
“Y’all jealous of my singing-” the argument continued.
“Do you hear anything like a commotion, boss?” one of the drunk workers howled. “I hear it, in my heaaad.”
“These people will be the end of me,” the tender grumbled. “I should’ve listened to my father, opened a respectable business, selling spices or something… but no, I had to open a tavern, easy money I said, just get paid for people sleeping and drinking.”
“You wouldn’t make for a good spice trader,” Theos told him. “I think I hear some strange noise outside,” he frowned.
“There is nothing but the drunkards, and you,” the man groaned before he turned to his wife. “ You can tend to this miserable ass since you let him back in.”
“Not my problem, you tend at night,” she replied.
Yet throughout all of the shouting, bantering, and arguments, Theos could hear what the man called a commotion, the strange thumping. Like a stampede crashing into the cliffs, a heartbeat against an eardrum.
Finally, he began to have that strange, yet familiar, headache.