Atlas stared dumbfounded at the giant, black wolf as he spoke softly with a bit of kindness, she sort of hoped she was hearing things.
“Well, of course not, did you see how big she was?” Atlas scoffed and the wolf chuckled at her.
“That’s not her true size, World-Bearer.”
Atlas slightly shivered, she didn’t want to know that.
Altair’s hand brushed hers and she looked at him confused, he stared back at her with that same confusion mixed with slight irritation. He didn’t like being in the dark. “You didn’t really think the Yellows could bring me back from the dead, did you?” Atlas whispered but it was so quiet it was futile to try to keep their conversation quiet. Altair slightly shook his head no.
“You died?” Zale asked, coming up behind Atlas and Altair.
“Story for another time, perhaps,” Atlas flinched and Grim watched her closely, she could feel his eyes… or his sockets, she supposed.
“We don’t have much time here. I can only keep the Mortal Realm slowed for so long,” a man said and Atlas knew it was the Lord of Time- or Erden as Grim had revealed him to be. He was tall and lanky and very pale, he looked like Runo after spending days in the library, his cheeks were hollow and there were bags under his eyes that suggested he never slept and his long hair reached his back and it was pale too and messy. It would almost be human of him to look so rumbled and not so well put together but he was too unperfect to be human.
“You have all been chosen to serve us,” The Grim Wolf started, and that sentence alone would’ve been enough to shove anyone into shock but he continued. “It has been centuries since any of us have taken Champions but to save Atlas’s life- at the request of the Lord of Time- I took her to serve me as my Champion and each of you has been chosen by the other Gods-”
“Stop, stop, you’re throwing too much at them,” Lady Raven interrupted, shaking her head at the giant wolf and turned to look at the eight of them before opening her beak-like mouth again. “The Blood Snake is an ancient being- a few centuries younger than us- that has been ruling over the Shaken Sands, taking in lost souls and turning them into what you know as Blood Sorcerers.” Lady Raven paused, scrutinizing each of us. “Each of you has been chosen by one of us to help stop her and her Blood Scourge.”
“Why is it so important to you now to stop it?” The Tinkerer asked and The Grim Wolf huffed. Atlas remembered what the Blood had threatened. “You have such pretty eyes, little wolf, perhaps I should take them so you match your master.” and then the Blood Snake had revealed that she had taken them. It made Atlas’s blood boil.
“It was always important, Gear-Heart,” Grim growled and The White Sun put her hand in his matted fur.
“Forgive, Grim,” she spoke with a soft smile but Atlas could tell that there was rage beneath her skin. “We haven’t allowed ourselves to meddle in the affairs of Mortals since the beginning of the Shattered Age, much to his dismay. Besides, you Mortals have a way of surviving.”
“Do we have any choice in this?” The once scraped up boy asked and froze when Grim’s sockets turned to him, fury hiding the darkness.
“No.”
“I didn’t. But it either death or this for me ,” Atlas shrugged and Erden seemed to give her an apologetic look before turning away and she didn’t have a chance to see if she had mistaken it.
“You have a choice. Maybe not much of one but you do have it.”
A woman- Atlas imagined her to be the Mistress of Storms from her dark eyes, wet, dark hair, and all around “man overboard” look- stared at the pirate. Atlas couldn’t imagine who he belonged to. “Maybe we should speak to our champions alone.” She suggested, her voice cold like a harsh storm.
“To settle them in?” The White Sun suggested to the Mistress but she didn’t say anything.
The Fox snickered. “Right. Because she cares if our Champions are comfortable.” Atlas hadn’t seen him, but the God of Trouble wouldn’t make himself known easily. He was a small orange and reddish fox, with white around his ears and paws and black at the tips of ears. A mischievous glint in his eyes; the God of Secrets, Betrayal, Trouble, Knowledge. Atlas gave Eden a quick look, she seemed the type.
Each God gathered their Champion, Atlas had guessed correctly with Eden and the Pirate- Esmer. The Mistress of Water, Storms, Chaos, and the Lost swooped him in like a seagull would food and suddenly their conversation was quiet. The Lady Raven took the smallish boy with bronze skin, Atlas wondered how he fit with the Goddess of Magic, Spirits, Night, and Prophecy.
Zale went with Lord Myrrh and Altair stared at him with jealousy and contempt. The Lord of the Earth and Protection was mostly an Elven God. Atlas didn’t imagine their relationship would improve any time soon. The White Sun took the Grumpy, Golden Girl and The Lady of Scorpions took her Assassin.
Atlas felt jealousy stab her heart as she saw the Tinkerer with Erden. She should’ve expected it. Atlas was Death’s Creature now. But she had spent her whole life devoted to The Lord of Time.
Grim growled and she turned to him sharply. “I’ve had enough of being in Creature’s jaws so if you pick me up and throw me like you did last time, I will be even more upset than you.”
Grim looked at her amused. “I highly doubt that you could ever be more upset than me. I’ve had centuries for my rage to stew.”
“That may be so but I assure I can be just as scary as you and Teyla when I’m angry,” Atlas huffed, and as he laid down she climbed up his fur along his ribcage and laid on his back. “Nobody’s ventured into the Shaken Sands since… ever. I’ve heard that nothing can be seen from its borders and it's a whole lot of emptiness with heat that would dry out anyone’s skin in hours.”
“It was beautiful once. I liked it there,” he reminisced and Atlas quieted, he seemed calm. “I remember a strange human there, I don’t know if they were human, they never seemed to age and whenever the Father- our creator- visited, sometimes that human would be there to accompany him. They were like The Fox and the Lady of Scorpions combined. They lived in that land, they built a castle with their own hands, I often wondered what happened to them. Did they die when Lamia took over that land?” He slipped again. He noticed and quieted, not saying anything more. Atlas closed her eyes, Lamia the Blood Snake.
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When Atlas opened her eyes again it was because someone had grabbed her and lifted her up into their arms. Atlas felt the cold marble floor under her hands as she looked up into Kadyn’s eyes.
Out of Time.
She ignored the voice and answered her father’s panicked jumble of- words. Atlas couldn’t tell if they were questions or ramblings, maybe both. “I’m fine. I’m fine, I swear,” she assured, slightly wincing as she sat up on her own. She saw Jaswyn crying into her mother’s stomach and Eliss stared at Atlas, silently asking if she was okay. Atlas nodded. Atlas had spent time with Kadyn’s family over the last month and she sort of… liked them. “Jas…” Atlas breathed, reaching out for her sister. “Look. See fine. If I can handle being in Icarus’s jaws, I can handle being cuddled by a snake, come on, Jasi.”
Jaswyn peeked out from her mother, and made a small clicking noise before rushing into Atlas’s arms. Atlas blinked in surprise but wrapped her arms around the small girl. She was strange but Atlas had grown to like that about her. She was just glad that her explanations on whatever interested her at the time were more interesting than Runo’s lectures.
“Careful…” Kadyn squeaked but I shook my head.
“I’m fine. Seriously, it was like being cuddled. It was cold, scaly, and a bit slimy but overall it was fine,” Atlas lied and she felt like Eliss and Kadyn both saw right through it. But Atlas didn’t want to scare Jaswyn, her home had already been violated by a giant snake and Blood Sorcerers, she didn’t need to know that Atlas’s ribs were crushed.
“Jaswyn, let’s get Atlas to the infirmary. Come, we’ll walk her,” Eliss called for her and Jaswyn nodded, giving Atlas one last squeeze before getting up and holding out her hand for Atlas. Atlas smiled at her, gratefully, standing while holding her hand before she looked around for Altair.
“The Elf checked on you and then left,” Kadyn told her, putting his hand on her arm lightly.
“Oh… well, if he’s walking he’s fine,” Atlas shrugged, she just hoped that he wasn’t doing a sweep of the castle on his own with Bloods about. But he most likely was. Atlas passed piles of dust as she walked with Kadyn and his family across the ballroom and to the infirmary. The dust glittered slightly and Atlas knew it had been some sort of magic the Bloods had left behind after disappearing along with their master. The Snake statue stood in the middle of the room, Atlas felt like it was staring at her. “The Dust should be disposed of… and that statue should be crushed.”
Eliss chuckled. “We’ll get right on that dear. Right after we’re sure you’re okay after that cuddle with the snake… I’ll get you some new clothes as well.”
“Not-”
“Not a dress. Yes, you’re going out, I understand,” Eliss smiled at her and Atlas wondered if all mother’s had some sort of psychic ability to read people’s minds.
“She does it to me too,” Kadyn whispered to Atlas.
Jaswyn looked up at her mother and clicked twice and her hand twitched. “But Atlas, can’t go out. What if she’s hurt?”
“The nurses will make her better, sweet thing, don’t you worry about a thing. Your sister will be okay,” Eliss assured and Atlas flinched at the word sister. Atlas didn’t know how to feel about it. In Kestva nobody had siblings. They didn’t have parents. Our only family was Kestva, our Sectors, although nobody said it outloud because it hurt to have nothing but each other and nobody wanted to acknowledge that.
✧
As dawn came, Atlas found Altair sitting on a ledge outside of their balcony. He was too good to sit on the balcony, he had to climb over the railing and sit on one of the tiny ledges. Igraine had told Atlas that cats did the same thing; Igraine hadn’t been raised by Kestva, most Whites weren’t, instead they came of their own volition, and Igraine had owned a cat, he liked high places. Altair- Atlas decided- was a cat disguised as an Elf. She wouldn’t say anything of his secret though.
“There are safer places to be,” she told him quietly, he gave her one look and then stared at the orange and pink sun. It wasn’t white. “Find anything?”
“Nothing.”
“No mice?”
That caught his attention and he stared at her confused, she only smiled. “No… there weren't any mice… are you scared of mice?”
“Of course not,” Atlas shook her head, his red eyes squinted and he went back to staring at the sun. Atlas realized she didn’t notice his red eyes as often anymore, when they were first met they had unnerved her, but now it was just him.
He gave her an incredulous look, he didn’t believe her truth, or rather he gave the sun an incredulous look but she knew it was meant for her. “I’m not climbing over the railing.” She stated and he was silent for a few moments. “I’m not.”
“Okay.”
Atlas groaned and lifted her leg over, slightly shaking, they were so high.
“What are you doing?” Altair asked, and she felt his hands at her hips once she was over the railing. “You’re shaking, Atlas, climb back over.”
“You’re the one who said we need to talk since we’re companions,” Atlas breathed and slowly turned around, Altair let out a low growl.
“Back over,” he ordered, “I swear to the Lord, Atlas, get back over there now.”
Atlas glared at his order and he sighed, pulling back his hands, she felt like she would fall without them but she climbed over to his ledge and sat beside him, it barely fit the both of him and Atlas swallowed nervously. She looked down, that was a mistake, the people seemed to be dots and the dragons as the roost were almost like bugs.
“You’d feel better on the balcony,” Altair shook his head but she could tell he was holding back a laugh because of her stubbornness.
“Maybe this is growing on me.”
“It’s not,” he stated and she almost elbowed him but she stopped herself.
“So, do we leave at dawn or dusk this time and do you mean dawn or dusk?” She asked and this time he couldn’t hold back the laugh.
“Tomorrow’s dawn.”
“And do you want to break the news to the others that you mean it when you say dawn?” Atlas joked and he rolled his eyes at her.
“I think they’d understand that I mean dawn.”
“They’d understand that you’re a crazy elf that doesn’t sleep,” Atlas teased and he gave her a withering glare. “Humans like sleep, I think the only one that might understand you is the Golden Girl and that is because she seemed your kind of crazy.”
“Perhaps she understands our mission takes priority.”
“Or perhaps they don’t sleep. The Golden-Eyed, I mean. We know almost nothing about them, it isn’t so far-fetched.” Altair gave her another withering look when she said that and she laughed. She turned to the balcony. “I don’t know how to get back over.” She admitted and he sighed, and started explaining what she needed to do.
✧
Altair had told the rest of their companions about the upcoming journey at dawn an hour later. Some didn’t seem particularly excited but he took no complaints. When Cyra, the Golden Girl, informed them that her charge- a small, shy boy named Bastien- was coming with, no questions asked. Altair wanted to ask questions but Atlas stopped him, Cyra’s duty was to care for the boy and Altair and Atlas knew duty was important.
The day went slow, night went slow and Atlas barely slept but Altair slept like a baby and the next morning, with goodbyes to Frey, Jaswyn, Eliss, and Kadyn we were gone. Zale didn’t seem surprised his parents hadn’t shown up, they had accepted his declaration to go like he was supposed and hadn’t bothered to show. Atlas put her hand on Icarus’s neck, turned to the castle with maybe a sad look, she’d miss the warm bed- and then she thought she saw Queen Galea looking through the window but Atlas blinked and whoever it was gone.