Needledrop

Epilogue

"That's better." She teases him with a smile, wrapping her arms around his neck, letting her hands rest over top of one another on his stomach. He lets out a huff of air, glaring half heartedly at the women, accepting his fate. The man behind the woman sighs, in blissful peace as he winds his arms around the woman's waist, holding her tightly to his chest as he rests his cheeks against the woman's shoulder. Slowly, he starts to lull off into a sleep. After minutes of silence, soft snores come from his mouth.

"He's asleep, isn't he?" Sighs the man in the woman's arms.

"He didn't sleep well last night." She reminds him of their long night earlier.

"Things seemed to have gotten interesting." Artemis interjects, looking off into the horizon. "Odysseus has joined them with his champion." She informs the others.

"Interesting." The woman says with a sweet, knowing smile.

"You three should rest, I will watch over them." Artemis tells them, nodding her head to the group at the table. The woman smiles warmly, accepting this offer as the weight of their duties to the universe began to also drag her consciousness into sleep.

"Thank you, Artemis." The woman says with the same warm smile. The man in her arms standing and shaking the man behind her awake. He grumbles out a string of unintelligent words at the other man, sighing into her shoulder. The man now standing offers the woman his hands, pulling her up from the ground and into his chest. She smiles at him, resting her tired head on his shoulder as he brushes the last remaining bits of grass from her flowing ocean dress.

"For now, we will rest, properly." The man glares at the other who is standing up from the ground slowly. "Tomorrow we can worry more about fixing the mistakes of the previous Elder God's." He speaks more to himself then the others, his eyes moving from the face of the woman to the deeply coloured hair of one of the men at the table.

Florence.

He sits with his arm wrapped around Inezze's shoulders, smiling and placing kisses along her face. He's been here a long while, waiting for his lover to join him. He was a puzzle piece that just wouldn't fit into this puzzle no matter how he was manoeuvred. His daughter is no different. Why wouldn't she be? They existed to give him a headache is what he believed. Time passed differently here. A moment here was hours in regular time amongst the land of the living.

The trio left, away to a place they called home. The land of the gods. A small home was off to the side, away from the lively town the others lived in. The first man, the one who sat in the grass went off straight to the bed, undressing from his strange suit and falling into the bed. The woman placed a hand over the other man's chest, just over where his heart should be beating.

"Don't stay up too long." She told more than asked him, getting onto her toes to place a light kiss to his cheek. She follows the other man, changing and crawling in beside him. The man sighs, taking off his suit jacket, undoing the top buttons of his shirt. He goes into a small office, the place covered in scattered pages and different coloured strings, a way for the trio to plan and mark out everything that had happened and would potentially happen. He worked for a while, doing the same thing as always. Then he heard a clatter.

The woman had stood up from bed after a couple hours of rest. She went to the kitchen, going to grab a midnight drink. However, someone waited for her there. Something hit against her head, her mind going foggy as she fell to the ground.

"Good evening, Fatum." The man smirked down at her as she fell into unconsciousness. The man came rushing out of his office, watching in horror as a familiar face tossed the woman over his shoulder, intending to leave with her.

"Florence." He breathed, fear gripping his stomach as he noticed the deep crimson blood on the floor, staining the woman's long blonde hair.

"Yes, a version of him at least." The man holding Fatum smirked. "I think I'll be keeping this lovely beauty." He refers to Fatum. "I can't help but wonder what the body of an Elder god looks like, feels like." He was purposely taunting the god before him. "What pleasure her body will give." This was when the man snapped, his anger taking hold as he lunged for Florence. Florence managed to be faster, waving his hand so blue flames engulfed his body, teleporting him away from the realm of the gods, back to his hiding place with the woman.

"I'll kill him." The man growls, smashing his clenched fists into the dirt under him. A hand touches his shoulder, some of his burning anger subsiding.

"What happened?" Asked the man who was asleep soundly only moments ago. The crash and chill of the loss of his sleeping partner had woken him. When the man on the ground didn't answer he helped him to his feet, pressing further. "What happened, Moarte?" His voice grew harder, pressing for answers.

"The evil version of Florence from the parallel reality took Fatum." Moarte growled, fists clenching tightly as his anger boiled. Fear swiftly set into the man as he rushed back into the house, looking to the small bit of blood on the floor. He collapsed to his knees in the doorway of the kitchen, tears wetting his eyes, staining hot trails down his round cheeks. Moarte comes behind him, crouching down to place his hand on the man's shoulder. Instantly, he turns, wrapping his arms tightly around Moarte's chest, crying into his chest. Moarte weaves his arms around the man, one around his shoulders the other angling his hand to grip his hair. The same way he'd seen Fatum comforting the man when he was upset. "We will get her back; this I swear to you Endring."