The Death of Time

...Is Ticking Away

Restoring the balance or condemning all Time…

Although Ananke had no conscience comprehension of where she needed to be to save Time, the properties of the Veil served her well and took her to where the Pillar of Time had once stood. To a non-native like ‘nake, the space looked like a rubble filled amphitheatre, much like the Coliseum, but to the god inside her head, he was shaken silent with the knowledge that this had once been the throne room of Mount Olympus. The Hall of Ruling Gods was no longer the pristine expanse of spectacular while marble and glittering gold that it had been for eons, but was instead an almost grungy looking rubble pit of tarnished, cheap looking golden rubble covered in marble dust. Although it had stood proud and alive mere moments ago, the entire area was now dead looking, no life in the stones, no energy filling the vast hall with greatness. Where Chronos had stood as Titan King and God, where his father, mother, sons and daughters had ruled before and after him, was laid low. And it shook some of the arrogance out of the Keeper of Time. Chronos was failing in his duty to keep this from happening; to keep Time from crumbling into chaos again and it was not an easy thing for the God to accept.

“We’re too late.” Herald’s tone was shocked and appalled, the immortal man frozen in place at the sight of the hall ahead filled with destruction.

“No, the Pillar still stands. Go forth, and watch for worse yet to come.” Metis said her voice wretched. She might had proclaimed no wish to be a part of existence anymore, but it seemed that the Titan Goddess was just as devastated from the sight before them as Herald and Chronos seemed to be.

Only Ananke was able to view the path before her without a sense of foreboding and dread. To her trained eye, she simply saw routes that were too dangerous due to obstruction, overhead rubble that could fall and one clear way forward. It wouldn’t be the easiest route but the mortal woman was not in the frame of mind to hesitate, because even if this ended with death, the attempt had been made. “Herald, stay with Metis. If the ceiling goes, get her out.” Ananke said simply and stepped forward, not waiting for either immortal to object to her directive, and in all truth not even realizing that she had commanded them. It wasn’t even an effect that Chronos had being inside her mind, but instead the leadership role she had once assumed with her own rescue crew coming forward once again.

Chronos could feel the hard edges of Ananke’s focus settle into place and strangely enough it did not constrain him. Instead her intensity and ability to observe and analyze the areas ahead and above them seemed to give him greater freedom to exist inside her mind with her. The Pillar is beyond Zeus’ throne, hidden in the farthest wall. His mental voice was nearly a whisper, not wanting to distract the mortal whose body he shared while she was walking a dangerous path.

Of course it is. These things are never out in the open, on the safest route or easy to get to. Where would the challenge in that be? Ananke’s internal reply was calm and Chronos was unsure if the benumbed mortal was mocking, joking or serious. The ground her feet strode across was cracked and pitted, the once level slabs of hardest rock shattered like glass. The added layer of slick marble dust, a few planes of smooth stone and the beginnings of the rain for outside only increased the likelihood of a painful fall for the mortal and Chronos had no desire to share her physical pain. So when he felt her muscles bunch and her balance shift for a rather dangerous leap over an obstacle, his instinct tried to haul back on the movement and caused the first of their bodily struggles for dominance. His actions caught Ananke off guard, her body trying to respond to both the command to leap and the impulse to stay put and her balance staggered, a spear of gold stabbing through the sole of her boot and into her foot as a result.  The pain wasn’t the sort of sensation Ananke was numbed to and her gasp was only a brief echo of the pain that shot through their shared minds, nearly flinging Chronos from her. He grappled to remain seated in the mortal’s body at the same time that Ananke tried to move past the moment of pain and remove the impalement from her foot. The blood that dripped from her boot left a footprint not all that different from the ones she’d left in Chronos’ memory-scape. Added to the wounds that Metis had inflicted with her wild claws earlier, and Chronos could feel the growing weakness slowly filling the mortal, a strange sensation for him to endure.