Maps || Joel

2: this is what a broken heart feels like

"𝕿𝖍𝖊𝖘𝖊 𝖓𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖌𝖊𝖙𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖑𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖑𝖞
𝖂𝖍𝖞'𝖉 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖒𝖊?"

Joel lived a long life as a mortal. Almost as long as Fwhip and Gem's lives away in the clouds. He lived an excruciating long life, to the age of 78. He had nobody with him most the time as him and Katherine didn't click.

They were told multiple times to get married and have children, to keep some sort of royal bloodline. But he wasn't interested. As nice as Katherine was, both of them knew he wasn't going to be content with someone else other than Lizzie.

Katherine wasn't interested in him that way either, they were just alright friends at most. Katherine's life was also pretty hard, she spent most her time with her gardeners after Aeor's Resolution. She did make attempts to visit Joel but it was fewer and fewer as they both grew older and were less fit to travel.

I rewatched how he spent his nights alone. It was the same everyday. He would take out his old sketchbook and just flip through the pages, looking at all the builds he wanted to do. He would light 3 candles that smelt of sea grass, eventually he would have to simply burn a torch as candles were harder to get.

Then he would just look out his window, onto where the ocean once was. He would look out before going to sleep, scanning for any sort of life. One time he thought he saw someone out in the sink hole so he ran out of his bedroom and flew over. There was nobody.

When Joel was 67, he was given the news that Katherine had unfortunately passed in her sleep. It was because of the flu. The old king didn't even cry, he just let out a sigh. Joel was waiting for his death by then, just a guy sitting on a throne in a broken palace he didn't feel like fixing waiting for his death.

I will guarantee you, his sweet release from this cruel timeline did come. Just a whole 11 years later. By then, life in the mesa was even worse than it usually was. We used to joke how Joel was poor, having limited food and water as the mesa was a dry land. Without the ocean and food being transported, Mezalians were hungry and malnourished.

Joel couldn't really do much, nobody was volunteering to get these supplies and he couldn't. He wasn't going to send a group of people on a death mission outside of Mezalia. Nobody was healthy enough to leave. So they just starved as the aquifers beneath the surface slowly but steadily dried out.

One day, July 18, 3079, he just died. Collapsed on the ground, much like how his wife had died 50 years prior. However, unlike Lizzie... he was handed to me. I got to grant him a new chance at life, he was the holder of the ocean orb after all. Lizzie had unfortunately lost it once she had died.

I remember the look on his face, it said more than any words could. He didn't recognize me, he still doesn't and that's okay. I asked him a first question, "How are you?" Joel was nonchalant about it, I didn't expect anything else from him. He responded with, "I'm good." As he looked at me. I knew it was a lie, nobody is truly 'good' right after they die.

I ask him, "Do you know why you're here?" He shrugs as I walk closer, within arms reach. I shift to my mortal height to seem less intimidating; 5'11. "Why would I?" He mumbled, a thing I've seen he does quite often in his later years. "You got the ocean orb, on January 29, 3029. The ocean orb is a sacred artifact."

Joel was confused, looking to me for answers. I don't give answers of the non-mortal world to mortals. "The shiny orb you touched when your wife died. That's the ocean orb." He let out a small 'oh' as he looked around. My throne room isn't large, it's mainly decorated with greenery. That's what I like.

"You have two options. It's either you return that orb and your memories are wiped for good, or you officially become the holder of the ocean orb." Since I've stated how long this tale is multiple times, you can probably guess which he chose. He chose the latter.

Jupiter later told me it's because he felt as if that's what his deceased wife would've done. "I'll have it." He was confident with his answer, only thinking about it for at most two mortal seconds before responding. He's always been like this, hasn't he? "Alright, then I have some things to show you."

He learned a lot. I had been assigned to the ocean orb so I had to lead him through it all. When initiating him, he had been given not what his wife was given. Jupiter was given... well... the powers of Jupiter. He had wings, the height, and new found power.

I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't a bit jealous. But I'd also be lying if I said I didn't help him explore these new features.

For someone who was a human all his life, it was expected he didn't know how to work real wings. I don't really remember how it is with wings, but I don't remember my wyvern wings being too difficult to manage. Joel was pretty slow learning how to fly without rockets, he felt strained.

Elytra glided, so he never had to use any strength of his own besides using his arms to shoot rockets occasionally. It was a few weeks before I decided to present him to the council. Joel never took well to the council and their quote 'Silly names.' They were never fond of him either, just seeing him as a pest turned god.

They also haven't forgotten what Salacia did. That doesn't help Joel's case. He was the reason she did it.

I don't understand both sides but I'm not on either side so I guess that makes sense. "They sound blumming stuck up, pleh." Joel complained immediately once we walked out of the council's meeting room. "They're seeing if you're truly... y'know... worthy of being a god." I put it into simple terms. If I'm being honest, Joel still had a lot to put in to prove himself to not only the council but to fate that he would make a suitable god.

Not everyone can be a god, which is why not everyone is.

"Lizzie had to deal with them? Gosh-I feel bad for her." The male's wings flapped gently as he glided back to my throne room, waiting by the door for me to walk in first. "She did, but that was before she was exiled." He's a god by this point, I can say more. If he was still mortal I wouldn't be disclosing this information.

I feel he must know about this.

"Exiled? From what?" Joel asked, a bitterness to his voice as he followed me to my throne. I sit on it, leaning back as I thought of nice words to phrase it. He could take the harsh reality but I wasn't sure how he would take it. "She was on the server, not just overlooking it. She had been exiled as she seemed to have fallen for a mortal."

Joel blinked, looking down while thinking. "You exiled her, she had left us with the ocean orb. If you can prove you won't do the same, you will gain the councillor's trust for all of eternity." I continue, I don't know if he cares. Why did he have to be the one to hold the ocean orb? He doesn't follow directions well.

"So I can't go back?" I nodded, but at that point he had already made his choice. The choice that would divide him amongst gods and bring him closer to his wife.