Chapter 37

"This isn't over," Typhon said as he confronted Eros. "Thanatos may be dead but what about the vita obscura? What about the sorceress, and our orders?" Typhon grasped his friend's arm, "What about Bahamut?" He looked hard at the melancholy knight.

Eros still suffered, he was grieving and cared not for duty. Thanatos was his brother, together they'd made a valiant last stand against Lemuria, together they'd brought down the villainous Aavak. But Eros survived and Thanatos did not, or so Eros had believed. He'd carried that burden around with him for 10 years, and then the man returned from the grave to charge him with the crime. Yes, Thanatos blamed him for leaving, and he was right to do so.

To add to his woes, he'd fallen in love and that love, that woman, had betrayed him. She'd another master. The wounds went deep. Perhaps he ought not to have let her go, perhaps Sabriel was right, and the sorceress should have been arrested. Eros massaged his brow because he didn't know. He was so conflicted - his mind a fog.

"It's over," Eros at last said. "The menace has been stopped." There was a pause. "Astraea will do no further harm - I know she isn't evil." Eros looked down to the floor. "As to the vita obscura, we have only the word of an old senile man, and a woman who deceived us from the start." Typhon opened his mouth to speak, but Eros continued. "And the devil, pah! Let another fight him, I no longer have the strength nor the stomach to do so."

Typhon looked despairingly at the titan who crumbled before him.

Sabriel meanwhile stirred in the distance; her horse was saddled and ready.

Typhon asked, "What will you do now?"

"Continue to Nunnehi," Eros nodded, "I don't expect that I will return to Hyperion soon."

A tear might have come to the mage's eye, but he quickly suppressed it.

"What does Aurora do?"

"I won't force her to return. If she wishes to journey to Nunnehi, she can."

The stoical mage thought for a moment: his orders would certainly be to bring her back, she was the princess for heaven's sake, but the mage preferred the felicity in her eyes that he saw of late than the suicide he espied in Lemuria. He too would not force his pupil's return. Afterall, the king didn't know she'd joined them on their mission. No explanations were necessary.

"And Skoll?" Typhon said, emerging from his brief reverie.

"He'll accompany the princess; he grows fond of her."

"And she him."

"One never knows, perhaps some good will come of all this, perhaps Hyperion and Lemuria may yet be united." The grieving cavalier allowed a wry smile to escape his lips.

"Very well."

Eros asked, "Where do you travel to?"

"Hyperion, it's home."

"Take care."

"And you."

The pair embraced; Eros watched Typhon mount his horse, converse with Sabriel a short while, and disappear into the distance. He turned his eyes to Skoll and Aurora who spoke so as not to be heard. They were silent when his eyes fell upon them.

"Let's go," he said.

***

Astraea lingered in Thanatos's mansion like a ghost haunting the stone walls. In the many days that passed she didn't stir from the armchair, her skin became much paler, her body thinner, she looked ill.

It was the middle of the night when the wind rattled the windows. She sat up, her dishevelled hair fell over the nightgown she wore. She heard a noise. It came from the lawn outside.

Astraea thought it was only the wind, but then again, she heard it. "There's nobody here, not anymore," she sobbed to herself half mad. A third time the noise was heard, the ghost Astraea drifted to the front door to investigate.

Opening the massive oaken doors the woman went out into the night. A terrible storm had manifested. The rain drenched her chemise; the wind howled through her shabby hair. There on the lawn was Phanishwar - Thanatos's great winged steed. It flicked its hooves and neighed.

Astraea said, "I'm sorry, but your master is no longer here." She paused. "Not anymore."

The stallion turned, and ran off into the darkness. Astraea returned to the mansion. Dripping wet, the poor woman was cold, but she didn't care. More than once her mind had grown so dark that she had contemplated taking her own life. She hated herself.

The sorceress entered the living room, but she was not alone. A tall figure stood before the fireplace. His back was turned, his riding cloak filthy, and it smelled of rain and dirt.

Astraea demanded, "Who are you?"

"Have I been gone so long that you don't remember me?" The man said as he turned to face her.

Astraea couldn't believe her eyes. She ran to him, her feet scurried across the carpeted floor. She held him tightly.

"How is this possible?"

"I will tell you all my dear," Thanatos said as he looked down into her eyes.

Chapter 38

Nunnehi possessed a navy so strong, and so swift that they provoked the wrath of nature. During a storm, a serpent was born, or rather a dragon, that would plague every sailor from the ancient kingdom for as long as there was a kingdom. Thus it was that a young emperor, on his way to rendezvous with a future empress, lost his armada, his life, and the precious stone that hung around his neck; but that was a long time ago, and few now believed it to be true.

Eros walked along the shore of that realm. The sea was perfectly still, only a slight breeze wafted through his hair. Beside him was his old acquaintance - Aegis. "How's the princess?" She said wearing a blue uniform that clung to her slender figure. The pretty admiral, responsible for the most powerful navy in all Lucretia, looked at Eros. She scrutinised him because she knew him to be a soldier that had earned the admiration of kings, but he appeared before her not as he was in previous times: he seemed darker, a cloud hung over him, and he emanated such a chill. She was concerned, of course she was, because years ago, when she was young and foolish, she'd declared her love for him. He'd rebuffed her, but the two had moved beyond it, and remained the closest of friends. And yet, at least for Aegis, that love still lingered.

"She adores Nunnehi," Eros smiled looking back at their horses as they grazed, "The ladies fashion is all the rage apparently."

"I'm glad," Aegis laughed. "Perhaps she can repair our nation's relationship."

The bombastic Ixion III had refused Nunnehi's hand of friendship in a very public way, and so, when Aegis brought news to the king and queen that the princess of Hyperion was there, no expense was spared to ensure that she felt most at home. Aurora did. She couldn't have enough of the fashion. A socialite at heart, she adored the many balls and late night soirees. Skoll struggled to keep step, but keep up he must for Aurora wouldn't go anywhere without him at her side.

Eros said, "It's a strange thing."

"What is?"

"I thought the princess spoilt - weak almost." He looked out to sea from the beach that the two conversed upon. "But she repairs much of the damage that our monarch has done. The Nunnehi king and queen see her almost as a daughter." Eros took a moment before saying, "And she impressed Typhon with her magical lore."

"Not an easy thing to do," Aegis smiled.

"She will make a fine queen one day."

"Ixion has a penchant for war, and with soldiers such as you, I'm afraid what might happen if Hyperion unleashes its might. Let's hope you're right about her."

Her - When he heard these words he thought of her, was he right about her?

"We shall never meet on opposing sides of the battlefield," Eros uttered regathering himself.

"Perhaps, thanks to Aurora, that may be so."

The pair smiled, and walked for a time. The cool sea breeze was the perfect remedy for Eros's ailing mind. They walked the shoreline. Cliffs could be seen in the distance, small islands of rock lay here and there. Eros allowed his mind to wander. Aegis of course, knew something was the matter; she sidestepped no more and said, "What's really going on?" Her eyes were as blue as the adjacent sea; Eros couldn't look into them.

He proceeded to recount all, speaking of sorceri and dragons, of ancient weapons, broken friendships and old ghosts coming back to haunt him, he spoke of the devil. When at last he finished Aegis paused, it was a lot to take in; she was lost in thought.

She said at last, "I know how important Thanatos was to you; I'm sorry things have turned out the way they have, but maybe the story is now complete, and you can at last move on."

Eros was silent.

"And a sorceress!" Aegis became animated, "A beautiful sorceress."

"Maybe Sabriel was right."

"That you should have arrested her," Aegis kicked the sand, "Perhaps." Eros sensed she was a little jealous of his love for Astraea, a love that she longed to be the beneficiary of, "But I think you did the right thing."

Eros wondered if it was the truth that she spoke, but it was certainly what he wanted to hear. He felt much better and embraced her; he would be lost without her counsel. When he released Aegis a messenger arrived panting.

"Sir," the young officer saluted, "Your presence is requested."

Aegis frowned and glanced at Eros. The two rushed to port, their horses were almost spent when they arrived. The admiral advanced to her flagship, but Eros had paused, unable to move because it was so breathtaking: there before him were docked the massive destroyers, the Nunnehi navy was like a sleeping giant. Incredible firepower, row after row of three deck ships of the line bobbing on the waves.

Aegis boarded the flagship, the Nunnehi Colossus. "What's happened?"

"A schooner was spotted in our waters; it wasn't one of ours," the first mate said.

"And?"

"Contact was lost with the coastguard."

Aegis banged her fist upon the rails, "That is a forty cannon vessel; its hull reinforced with crystal."

Expressions on the bridge were grave.

"There's more sir," Aegis looked up from the wooden deck, "A destroyer was sent to investigate."

Aegis said, "A military grade vessel."

"We lost contact with her too sir."

Aegis walked starboard side, and glanced out to sea where it looked perfectly calm.

"Where was the last known location?"

"The Sengen Strait."

Eros froze because that's where the Sunblade Victory sank, where the third stone was lost around a young emperor's neck.

"Get me out there now," Aegis commanded.