The Children // ASSASSINS CREED ODYSSEY // DEIMOS

C16: The Path

The cult had no fear in taking out its own.

"But still - what is the point" Melaina had asked,

"You keep going until you find the point" Eos told her, "Now. Get up".

The other point, which would prove most useful to Eos, was the point of going to Keos and talking to Xenia.

Except, what Laelaps had not told her, was that Xenia was not the only one she'd spoken too. The lycaon had his flaws just as much as Eos did. Except, the lycaon did not acknowledge his.

"I'd..." Melaina hesitated a moment, then sighed " I'd heard news of Akin. Heard that he was selling himself as a mercenary to the likes of Spartan and Athenian generals",

"He never could decide who he really was" Eos said, the only ever group he'd been loyal to was the cult but, by the sounds of it, he'd not been much loyal to them either - or Asphodel.

"And then, I heard that he was training for a fight" Melaina had already been dawdling behind them, making Eos want to grab her and drag her – it'd probably be faster – but now, she'd stopped completely, "with forty-nine others". Eos stopped too, looking back at her.

Eos sighed, "The battle of a hundred hands", Melaina nodded. Eos had looked at Laelaps and, the lycaon had turned his head away from her - it was a time the lycaon would prefer to forget. Another time in which she'd gone against his wishes and almost died.

"You fought in that, did you not" Melaina asked, looking from one to the other,

"Not exactly..." Eos sighed, "I snuck in once the battle had started. I'd been on the tail of that deserter - he'd been riled up, planning to shoot down our champion before he reach his prime" Eos looked to the road in front of them. "I think that's the only time I have lied to him. Told him I missed his fight because I had got drunk". Eos turned back around to Melaina, wondering if she'd only asked her to change the subject, "Who told you where Akin was",

"A man I knew from the Kerkyan training ground. Akin did some jobs for him a few years ago. He'd used his true name – they'd become friends. Akin has done much since but, he adopts a different name to keep himself hidden, to keep the eyes from seeking him out. The man was from Keos. That was why I went there",

"Have you always known where abouts Akin was",

"No" Melaina put her head down, "I felt it better if I did not".

Melaina could find anyone. If she wanted to.

Perhaps she had been falling from the cults graces for far longer than she'd admit.

"Then, why did you talk to Xenia" Eos asked, Melaina smiled a little, remembering,

"It was by chance. She saw the lycaon at my heels. Warned me about him. Said she had said the same to another girl" Laelaps snorted at them both. "I told her I was trying to find someone. She told me that too many of us search for others when, the only person we need to find is ourselves" Melaina began to walk again, going passed Eos, "I thought that... by destroying her..." Eos raised her brow, she'd done more than destroy her, "I could do that... by making her feel like I did but..." Melaina stopped, it hadn't, it had only made her feel a sense of power and malice and... Eos was right – that was everything she did not want to be. "My... beginnings, it did not begin when I was taken by her". Melaina sighed, "And, that is why I can not come with you Eos".

Melaina, if she was good at anything, was making Eos' head hurt. Sometimes, she would wish to see the inner workings of those around her but, Melaina was not one of them.

"Why",

"Because to find myself I must go back to where I began, back to Sparta" Melaina said, "I need to complete a journey that is my own. All my own. I am not meant for what it is you are trying to achieve", Eos didn't even need to say anything to make Melaina explain that little bit more. Melaina smiled, stepping forward and taking her hand, "You will find yourself on this journey you take Eos and, I believe I may find myself on mine".