The Death of Time

...Is The Fire In Which We Burn

At the start of a journey…

Ananke took a deep breath in and immediately felt the presence of a foreign personality inside her flesh. It was uncanny and unlike anything she’d ever felt before. And Ananke knew this couldn’t be the feeling a mother had towards a fetal child because she felt as if she could reject the presence out of her if she needed to. The knowledge was buried quickly, ‘nake unsure of exactly how close she was to this new man in her head. She had seen for herself already how possessive he was of his dominion and strength and would not kindly take her to being the one with the control. Better to make peace now by keeping him oblivious.

This is going to take some getting used to. Chronos’ voice sounded inside Ananke’s mind like her own internal dialogue had inhaled Sulfur Hexafluoride. But he couldn’t command her mouth so she was the only one that heard his commentary. I concur. Ananke replied internally, finding it strangely easy to transition to talking to him this… intimately.

“You’re talking to him aren’t you?” Hades asked, drawing Ananke’s attention back out. “I can see this unfocused look in your eyes, it’s only obvious if you’re really looking for it and already know that you’re hearing a voice.” He sounded a little smug, like he knew what she was feeling and didn’t envy her one bit.

He’s enjoying this far too much. Chronos groused, sounding almost petulant. Ananke wasn’t bothered by Hades’ amusement. She’d just accepted it as being there and moved on to thinking about the immediate needs that had to be met before she could go on any kind of excursion. As her stomach grumbled, step one quickly became fuel her body. It seemed that housing two souls in one body led to an increased metabolism and she made a mental note to bring along extra rations to keep up her energy levels. Are you always this analytical or does this have something to do with why I am not in control? Chronos asked, pressing at the boundaries of his control.

It felt strange to be constrained like this, claustrophobic and crushing. He hated every second of it and resented this woman greatly for it. She had something wrong with her, he could feel it and see it almost; a blank wall of impenetrable, opaque diamond and as impossible to access as the bottom of a woman’s purse. How do you understand colloquial humor? Ananke queried, startled to find herself mostly aware of everything Chronos thought about with any kind of intensity.

Our minds touch and around the edges overlap. You feel my thoughts, I taste your emotions. Right now there are none and I have no access to your inner most thoughts. Chronos explained, compelled to tell her the complete truth as she could just leech the information from him if she concentrated; or he did. It was irritating knowing that he would have no privacy and once again he hated his fate. Cursed to be bound to the Heart of Time until someone willingly took it from him, Chronos knew that he was unlikely to ever be free again. Now to suffer the indignity of being the submitted personality in this duo rankled. His anger burned between them, etching and solidifying the line between their personalities and inadvertently hurting both of them.

Watching from the outside Hades had no clue what was going on inside that beautiful head of Ananke’s, but when she suddenly flinched and her whole body jerked as if she’d been struck had him diving over the table to help her. Ananke gasped at the pain and her eyes focused on Hades for a second before they unfocused completely and he knew she was rounding on his father for whatever it was that he had just done. While he was helpless to watch, he couldn’t keep himself from holding her hand and stroking the skin on the back of it softly. He couldn’t see into her mind but as his domain was the Underworlds and the souls contained therein, he knew more about this woman than even the man in her head did. This was going to be a long and interesting journey for the two of them, and if the outcome of failure wouldn’t be so severe, he could almost wish to watch them fail; if only to see his father do something he wasn’t perfect at. It was petty but Hades knew he was like that sometimes. Watching Ananke stay distant and disconnected, he brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it gently, tasting her skin and the whiff of death that lingered on her flesh still. It was weaker now than it had been right after the incident and he knew that eventually it would fade away entirely as she moved on from her moment on the abyss of death, but she would be scarred by it and changed by it for life. His friend Thanatos had seen to that.

Inside Ananke endured the fire of Chronos’ anger and met it with the cold emptiness that was her own emotional vacuum. His anger dissipated into nothing and she still held no emotion on her own, not even the irritation of now having a massive migraine because he was a spoiled brat. His guilt salved the mental wounds a little as he realized his overreaction and the damaged it had done; but only because he had burned himself with his anger.

I do not know why you simply couldn’t dominate me, I’m not consciously resisting. Ananke explained calmly while he tried to find a comfortable position to exist in. He knew she was telling the truth but his resentment still lingered between them. It was illogical because if Destiny had picked this woman as a vessel, it was obviously important that she be a part of this and yet he resisted. It wasn’t in his nature to capitulate easily and this was only the beginning of their uncomfortable partnership so starting off passive barbed his pride.

Ananke could feel his resentment, his contempt, his frustration and behind it all his growing worry over the state of Time while he was distracted here with her. Even is his nature was rude, rough and rather vexing, Ananke could tell that he took his duties seriously even if he would gladly give them up at the first opportunity. She wondered at his back story, if only so that she would have more information on what this man was like. And a great part of her was still rather convinced she had lost her battle against madness.

Relay a message to my son. Chronos commanded and Ananke just ignored the insulting tone. Tell him that when we are down the mountain to contact the Herald. His services will be necessary if you are going to be kept alive. There was enough snoot in his tone to drown an elephant in but again Ananke just brushed it off.

“He is requesting the Herald when we get to civilization.” Ananke repeated the message without the parts insulting her mortality. Internally she replied simply with, I’ve managed to survive thus far through things you have no concept of understanding so please, if you really can’t stand being here just leave. When he didn’t respond and didn’t vanish, she figured that was as close to an apology as she was going to get.

Six hours later and Ananke, with Hades and the return team had started their trek down the mountain. In the time between neither Ananke nor Chronos had gotten any more comfortable with their position together or made peace with the forced intimacy it pushed on them. A year of being almost entirely alone had ill prepared Ananke for the task of housing an emotionally volatile and dramatic Greek god. When she reconsidered the concept of him being nothing more than a mental fracture and symptom of insanity, she realized that his behavior was a strange foil for her own absent emotions. But these thoughts were buried as Ananke tried to keep her mental self doubt hidden.

The mountain team was clearly curious as to know where exactly this strange man had appeared from, and how exactly it was he had ended up in the middle of the mountains without a single piece of winter gear. But Ananke simply didn’t provide an explanation and Hades took his cue from her. The way the others readily accepted her aloof and reserved nature told him louder than words that she had been like this for quite some time. This was a bought team of experts, not a collected partnership of friends. He wondered who had broken this woman so badly and a part of him greatly wished to meet the culprit and break something on them in return. She was like the Pegasus or Unicorn, fantastic, powerful, majestic and at great risk of disappearing entirely.