The Children // ASSASSINS CREED ODYSSEY // DEIMOS

C38: The Storm

Alexios didn't need her to sit up, to comfort him when he woke up from the terrors that tried to embrace him every night, the sweats and thoughts were enough hassle without having her cooing over him...

At first, he thought he may get used to it but, he'd started to realise it was too little, too late. He didn't know if he had anything left in him to love, or feel, for anyone else... He'd used it all up and, a part of him would wonder if the peice he clung on to was the only thing that made him go on. As much as all the other part didn't want to believe it.

It was weak of him, everything about him was weak - which only aided in making him more angry - and, he hadn't found the inner strength he thought he'd had without them. Without the purpose they'd promised - or perhaps they hadn't really promised him anything and he should have promised something himself...

Alexios averted his eyes, realising he'd been staring at the back of Barnabas' head and, he'd noticed Kassandra raise her brow at him out the side of his eye.

Kassandra, as much as she tried to understand, she didn't yet know the man Eos had told him so much about - or, this version of him anyway. His purpose, their purpose, Kassandra had started to wonder if the trials she'd faced to bring him home were never meant to end like this - as much as she hoped they were...

It was never anything she could really discuss, especially now Myrine was here. As worried as she got about him, she had so many dreams for him and, even suggesting that it was never meant to be was an offence.

Myrine, who was already telling Barnabas of the quest she was on - which, Alexios was sure was just a cover to keep an eye on him.

Myrine claimed that the Spartan King was worried about things he'd heard from Messenia and, with Kassandra having been given a letter from a courier that very morning - about a possible disturbance in Archai involving the Order - from her Persian friend Darius - Myrine thought it only right she was to go too and report back to the King as soon as possible.

Poor Kassandra had stood there for almost a whole hour, watching as the waves lapped at the ship, tossing it around gently, Poseidon teasing a storm.

If the Order was involved in some sort of sea blockade in Archai then, she had to help but, Melaina's words - that her brothers existence should go unnoticed if she didn't want a target put on to his back too - made it all the more difficult the decision. And now, she had her mater to worry about too.

And then, after having looked out a the sea for long enough, Kassandra had realised that, it wasn't her choice. None of this was ever her choice and, to treat Alexios like he was some sort of child who couldn't make his own decisions, would only create a rift between them - a rift she was sure had already started to form by her having left him in Sparta in the first place.

So, she turned to her brother, who had arrived a little while before and had been stood on the dock, looking out to the sea too. Kassandra always wondered what it was he thought about, his face so contemplative, she wondered he was so used to the ghosts of the past, they were just as painless as everything else.

"Here" Kassandra said. Alexios, lost in thought, had taken a moment to turn. He took the letter from her, reading over it.

"And you don't want me to go" Alexios said, he turned back to the sea, the letter being scrumpled tightly in his hand - he knew it had been too good to be true... No matter though. He couldn't stay here - not anymore. He wasn't scared of any Order - he had to-

"No, I..." it was the last thing she wanted but, "I want you to decide".

Wrapped up in his own thoughts again, cursing himself, his sister, his mother, even the crew on the ship, it had taken him another moment to realise what she'd said,