It took Laelaps four days to convince Eos that she should go seek out Melaina – who, evidently, had not really taken Deimos' further orders to continue her search for the girl the farmer had seen.
Yes, she'd been walking around Attika, searching, but it had actually been for Eos herself and not the one Deimos wanted her to look for - even if they were the same person.
For those first couple of days, Eos had continued with her plan. To act like a sort of ghost that Melaina would see and then she would not but, eventually, Eos saw what Laelaps was trying to tell her with his disembowelled rats that he liked to bring to her and then crush the skulls of.
There was something else on Melaina's mind that this plan would only further hurt. Her mind had always been a little crushed in places, the eye had made sure of that but, never in the way that Laelaps was trying to show to her now.
Melaina didn't need a ghost. She needed something real.
Except, standing by that door, in the dead of night – after Laelaps had dragged her and almost ripped her arm off in the process – Eos forgot what it was she could say.
Melaina could do any number of things.
Attack. Cry. Scream. Hug her.
All of them. None of them.
Trying to ignore the pain in her arm - which the lycaon had probably grabbed a little too hard because it was now bleeding profusely through the peice of material she'd had to rip from her robes - and had also started to make her feel that touch little light headed, Eos thought back to that morning.
Laelaps had been off somewhere, she'd assumed watching Deimos at Fort Phyle and, she'd followed Melaina through the square. She hadn't meant to be seen at all, she'd promised Laelaps to leave the plan be but, somehow, she'd caught Melaina's eye by mistake for just a moment, saw her both frieghtened and relieved before she was able to disappear in to the crowd - leaving Melaina to stand there, and only for Eos to freeze herself when she saw Deimos and one of his men headed in her direction.
He had actually seen her, in the corner of his eye, Eos seen him stop, seen him go to turn his head but, she dodged around some Athenians and found herself sat down behind some pots. There had been nowhere to go. If he'd came over and not told himself he was going insane... hell, she didn't know what would have happened. Although, it may have saved her from the pain in her arm.
Still, Laelaps, who was here now, had assured her – in his own way – that Deimos was sat in Fort Phyle, on Kallinos chair, staring at some sort of letter he'd got from a mercenary not long before.
Deimos, who was also subsequently regretting having killed that old farmer – if only to have some sort of proof that the girl who'd came here actually existed.
For all they knew, the farmer was some crack-pot old fool who'd only been seeing things. Even if he had tortured all sorts of useless secrets out of him. It didn't mean that the man hadn't believed it enough to see something that wasn't there.
And, the blacksmith; with his wild little story of the girl who'd got his sword back for him – with dark hair, dark eyes and sun-kissed skin – which a fair amount of most Greek woman were also described as – and the ultimately dreadful feeling that he was being watched, was just as useless as the farmer. People would do all sorts to make some drachmae, especially in times of war.
And Ogarneos.
Well, it hadn't taken long for the bounty hunters to collect their payment.
Which did leave Kallinos' many whores but, none of them were in any position to pay a large enough sum of drachmae to slaughter a whole fort and, Kallinos' little Leanna had cried so much about it, Deimos had almost felt sick at the sight of the puffy eyed pig.
It was one of those plans worthy of Kallinos himself.
Which, either meant that Kallinos had planned it – and just sort of forgot to give anyone else the blame - and killed himself too - or... it was someone who'd been involved in multiple schemes with the great Kallinos.
Except, the men he worked with – and schemed with – were all accounted for, and all dead.
Which only left the rest of Chrysis' little brood, but; Akin- although a little more roguish nowadays - wouldn't have been so clean with the butchering, Glaukos was far away, staring at tablets on a wall, Pyros was off licking boots, Melaina was... Melaina, and Asphodel... well; even if she had been 'missing' for almost three months already, that little Persian flower would have poisoned them instead of stabbed them in the back.
And, no matter how many times Melaina told him she wasn't, Eos was dead.
Unless it was true and she'd somehow come back to haunt them on the say-so of Hades.
Honestly, he couldn't understand how just the thought of Eos – or even Asphodel – could send Melaina in to such a frenzy... They hadn't even left on good terms with each other.
Still, sitting back in Kallinos' favourite chair, its front legs hanging in the air, Deimos wondered about what they had said to him when he'd informed them of Kallinos' demise. Despite their assurance that Asphodel's disappearance was indeed planned – just not with his knowledge – they seemed to be that little more riled when they heard one of their greatest thinkers had gone to Hades without them knowing.
Even if they did conclude it to be nothing more than a personal attack by his sister – an obvious attempt for Sparta to get a hold of Athens once again.
Which, just didn't sit right with Deimos.
His sister profited off this war just as much as he did, yes, but, if she'd done it, she wouldn't have bothered leading Kallinos out to his little cliffside retreat. Surely...
Unless...
Unless his sister was intending to sway him... Only for her to realise quite quickly that Kallinos was too filled with fear to put a foot out of line... Deimos smiled...
It wasn't as if she hadn't expressed the want for him to join her on her little family reunion. Maybe she'd found out about Kallinos having grown up with him and thought that if she could convince him, she'd have access to her brother...
Well, it hadn't gone the way she'd planned... Obviously...
Deimos leaned forward then, the chair hitting the floor.
There was just that glaring little problem they all seemed to miss - that her damn ship had last been seen sailing south of Naxos and no one knew where she was.
Oh, and the cult had been hunting their mater just like she said they were.
How much else were they keeping from him.
*
Before she even touched the handle, Eos looked down at Laelaps.
"You have to stay outside" Laelaps tilted his head, looking offended - this was his idea, maybe Eos was the one who should stay outside - Eos sighed, almost smiled, she could only imagine what he was thinking. "If Deimos or one of the guards come, I need to know", the both of them felt the first pick of rain and the lycaon did a small whine before it turned away from her. Accepting his fait.
Eos pulled up the handle, opening the door slowly. It was dark inside, only lit with a few candles here and there. The moon behind her, it gave off some sort of sight but, as the door shut with a soft clunk, it took the moon and the huffing lycaon with it.
Her eyes scanned the room, it wasn't very big, had some small windows - not big enough to escape from - but there was another door, just off from where she stood, there was a small trickle of light coming through the glass, the outside. Then, she caught sight of the body hunched over the table, a pool of blood puddling at their feet – she felt her heart in her mouth, even lowered her dagger which she'd kept close to her chest. Then, she saw movement in the corner of her eye.
Letting her own dagger drop, she reached out to grab at the skinny wrists that were coming at her with their own. Raising her knee up to stop the kick to her stomach, Eos heard the daggers drop to the ground as they gasped and then, pulled the wrists together before she pulled the body around and held them still.
"Just kill me... and... and..." Melaina's legs collapsed and Eos let her fall, taking a step back. "They said you would come... that you would tempt us with your words..." Eos took a few more steps back, grabbing for the candle closest and bringing the light over to her. Melaina had dragged herself to the wall, hugging it as if it was the only real thing there, "Your lies... that you would drag us away from that which we would conquer. That-" she looked so thin now, the robes she wore out had been thrown on the floor, the gown she wore clung to her as if she was some sort of skeleton.
Eos had heard this speech before. It had been given to them by Chrysis. Except, it had concerned the eagle bearer and not her.
"You would see the world burn and chaos ensue and take from us the glory we ourselves deserve" Eos found herself saying the rest of the speech with her. Chrysis had given it to her a couple of days prior to Elpeanor dying, prior to that night that had changed everything for her.
Melaina had gone still, as if she was registering the voice in her head.
"Eos..." she said after a moment,
"Mel-" Eos went to take a step forward, her face illuminated by the candle only helping in making Melaina throw herself backwards, hitting her head on the wall and making even Eos flinch, her cry was high-pitched but feeble,
"I said you would come" Mel choked on a sob in her throat, "that you would haunt us... for what we did... for what we do...".
Eos said nothing, allowing the incoherrant babble to continue.
If she knew anything about Melaina, it was that she liked to be listened too. She wasn't always believed – some of the things she said were downright insane – but, Eos knew that the only way Melaina could accept this – accept her – was by talking herself in to it. Eos knelt down slowly.
"For what we believed... for we have no real place in this world" Melaina didn't look at her, she only stared at the body hunched over the table as she spoke, "Let me be with them, will you... wherever they are... silenced... soulless..." Melaina touched her face, pulled at the skin below her eyes, "She had it... she had the sight and they took her away... I have the... the sight..." Melaina looked at Eos but, it didn't actually feel as if she was looking at her, "And now, I cannot see, I am useless to them...",
Eos almost smiled. That was Melaina's gift. The reason the cult had taken the red-headed babe from Sparta all those years ago.
If Eos somehow had a lycaon by her side, Melaina had the blood of an oracle.
Except, as soon as she'd shown any signs of the sight, of Godly visions - the eye of kosmo had taken her and supressed it. Almost as if she was an experiment. Twisting her perfectly sane mind in to one that couldn't really fathom truth or lie. That made the visions she saw just a product of what the cult wanted.
And, amongst Chrysis' little brood, there had been a reason why the children of Kosmos had been taken and raised the way they were.
Kallinos had been the babe of great thinkers; Pyros had been an orphan to a flame that had killed everyone but him; Glaukos had washed up on a beach, a gift from Poseidon; Asphodel had been a Persian, a lost baby of a supposed Persian king, Deimos a demi-god and the blood of the first civilisation and Eos...
Eos'd had a twin brother once. Long dead now. Killed by a lioness. They said that in the end, the truest sibling had survived, and the other replaced by a wolf. Eos only thought it as a stupid decision, and a lucky break for the dying lycaon pup.
"She was so scared... so scared of them... but it's not a horror but an honor... the gods word... through her like a..." Melaina was still babbling, and Eos quickly realised that it was best she started listening again, "They took her... planned... the Persian flower... silenced for the lies she told... Eos... the wolf... the pack leader... planned... killed for the life she took...",
The Persian flower.
Asphodel.
Planned?
"Kallinos... the mind... the brother... taken for the schemes he pursued... and I... taken for the truths I do not speak...".
Except, Eos wasn't there to kill her.
And, as Melaina looked back from her to the body on the table, she had some sort of epiphany.
Eos didn't even see it coming. Melaina wrapped her arms around her neck and squeezed so hard, Eos choked. Melaina let go, holding her by the shoulders as she leant back,
"Eos..." she cupped her face in her hands then, "You're...".
Violence. Suppression. Acceptance.
The three stages of Melaina.
"But... they said you ran..." Melaina said,
"I never run Melaina" Eos said, her dagger was back in her hand now, gripped tight and held close to her. She hadn't even realised she'd picked it up.
The three stages of Melaina could so easily turn in to four.
"Their taking us out Eos" Melaina told her, "Their trying to..." she looked away, back at the body at the table, "their wiping us from existence... First, it was you... when you..." Melaina trailed away, "Then they took Asphodel" Eos sat back on her heels, the dagger flat on her thigh, "She saw a truth... a truth that was a lie...",
"What did she see" Eos asked,
"A vision... from the Gods... the Persian flower... the blood of an oracle ran in her veins Eos. She was never meant to". Asphodel had been a gift to the cult, a gift from a supposed Persian king to make it so the cult would leave them out of this war. That it would leave the Persians who resided here free to pass through without much hate. A treaty almost. "She was afraid Eos, she knew what they would do but, she saw something that made her mad, made her speak lies... then... she vanished... like a mist... he tried to... he couldn't find her... he still can't" she sounded horrified at that but, she'd always held Deimos in such high regard - no matter how much he pushed her away or flittered over her as if she was just something to be used.
"And Akin is so sad Eos. He left us... He ran..." Melaina put her hand out, grabbing softly at something invisible, "He loved her and they took her...".
Akin the warrior. The bull-beheader. Eos couldn't believe that he'd run, but she knew that he had loved her.
"And he says Akin is fine, that he is true, strong but, I've seen it. His pride; it will kill him".
They'd been saying it since they were children, if anything was going to kill Akin, it'd be that.
"And Kallinos... I think they took him too Eos... Like they tried to take you".
Eos took a deep breath and shook her head,
"No Mel, I did that" she said quietly,
"What" Melaina said it as if she'd forgotten that Eos was there,
"I killed Kallinos" Eos told her, she placed the dagger on the floor and Melaina watched her, the silver glinting in the candle light,
"But... you said" Melaina pushed herself up against the wall, "You are not real-"
"Melaina, he tried to kill me" Eos told her, "I went to Attika. I saw Deimos kill Periklese" she could see her shaking her head, but she carried on, "him and the Chimera threw me in to Hephaistos as the lava started to rise",
"The Chimera is gone. Vanished from the world" Melaina said quietly,
"I know. I killed her too" - Eos had took a pleasure in that one.
Melaina seemed to come back to herself then. "Eos... how did you... they said you... they said that they left your body to the wolves..." her voice was so small now,
"They did Melaina" she smiled "but, Laelaps found me",
"No Eos" she reached out again then, cupping her cheek as if to comfort her "He's dead. They shot him. He collapsed. His body was on fire" she raised her hands then, as if she was holding something.
"Well, he didn't die" Eos told her, he also hadn't been shot or set on fire but, Eos wasn't about to try and convince Melaina of that, "he dragged me away before I succumbed to Hades",
"But Kosmos took your life... for the one you took" Melaina whispered it, as if she couldn't let anyone hear it.
"Sometimes I wish he had but, the Gods must have found it funny to let me live" Eos said. She wasn't here to talk about that. "Melaina. I tried to get Kallinos to see the truth, and I don't need to do that with you because, you've seen it".
"Are you going to kill me too" Melaina asked, looking down at the dagger on the floor,
"No Melaina. I want you to come with me".
"What" Melaina looked up at her, "No... Eos... I",
"Why not Mel" Eos asked, "You've seen the truth... you've seen what the cult does... what they've done... you know it's not right",
"They would always find me... the eyes... but to leave them... I would be blind..."
"No Mel, you'd finally be able to see" Eos said, she put her hand on her head, felt the blood trickle from her hand on to her face,
"And the eyes would follow me, they would follow me and I would..." she was babbling on now. About the sage, about Elpeanor... About the shadow that had taken her.
"What if I killed them" Eos suddenly asked, Melaina stopped,
"I can't see without my eyes Eos" Melaina said quietly, her voice was suddenly soft again, as if she wasn't really there,
"No Melaina - you'd be able to see with the eyes the Gods gave you, the eyes that do not lie",
"Maybe I don't want to" she said it so quietly Eos almost didn't hear, she wasn't even sure she was supposed to. It made her feel sick. Still, Eos grabbed on to Melaina's hand, and, for the first time, Melaina actually looked her in the eye.
"If I got rid of them. If I found Asphodel. Would you come with me" Eos asked. Pressing that small coin in to her hand, laced with her blood now - as they had been once, all them years ago. She saw it. Hope, maybe even longing in those big, tear ridden green eyes before they turned away from her.
It made Eos realise that she couldn't give up on Melaina just yet. Melaina wasn't blind to the truth, she just didn't believe it. And that was more than what Kallinos had given her.
"I don't know" Melaina eventually said, "I don't know if there's anything after this Eos",
"There is a lot Mel" Eos told her, she hadn't experienced much of it yet but, just the people she'd met had made her realise that there was so much more room in the world to be who you wanted to be. And, most importantly, that nobody was just one thing.
"But would he not find me if I left... would he not-",
"What did Deimos say when you told him you saw me" Eos asked. She needed to know.
"He did not listen, he-"
"Mel, if he does anything, it's listen" he knew how important it was to Melaina that he listened, they all did,
"Yes, but... but he does not believe" Mel put her head down. Eos sighed, it would have helped, if only a little, but Melaina wasn't finished, she raised her head, "but... I think part of him wanted too... but now... Eos" she sighed, "we had him once, we had him whole but, the pieces... they've started to fade away, to break off. I don't know if there's many pieces left to save... I don't know if he could be anymore than he's made to be...",
"But you said he wanted to believe" Eos said quietly,
"We all know why that is Eos" Eos almost thought that she heard the bits of spite in her voice that Melaina could so easily let go, but she ignored it,
"Well, maybe that's the only piece we need to pull it back together" Eos said, it was almost a question but, Melaina wasn't about to answer it,
"He's so sad too" Melaina told her, she slouched her shoulders, sighed, "So many sad children... So many dead... Kallinos..." she nodded her head, "I saw his death once... long ago... He betrayed someone he loved... And he died for it"
"Because he did love us" Eos said, "in his own way". Melaina smiled weakly, she'd had more than few situations that Kallinos had got her out of as well. "Melaina. I can get rid of Kosmos eyes" Melaina sighed and Eos stood up, bringing Melaina up with her "but I can not do it on my own",
"Eos, they will know that I told you... they will see through the lies..."
"Melaina, they'll be dead and it won't matter".
Melaina took a step away from her, looking at Eos as she walked backwards towards the man on the table, she had the coin clutched in her hand, the bronze digging in to her palm.
"Did you take it Eos... did you rid it of this world" Melaina asked suddenly. Eos didn't realise what she meant, then she watched as Melaina turned around to the body that was still hunched and stinking on the table, "Did you take the life they punished you for", Melaina glanced back, saw Eos nod her head. "Only fitting really... You give life. You take it away...".
Eos wanted to tell her that it shouldn't work like that but, Melaina wasn't finished,
"I should think that Kosmo has enough children. That it should probably end with us".
Eos took that as a promise, as an agreement from the red rat of the cult of Kosmos.
And then, Eos heard it, the soft scratch at the door – which neither of them had realised had been getting louder to equate for the storm that was now hung over Attika. Eos pulled the door open and the lycaon raced in, turning around to snarl at it as it closed.
Melaina hadn't moved.
"Eos, you must go... You must...",
"Mel, come with me" Eos said, she turned to her,
"No, I can not Eos. Not yet. It's too dangerous. Please, just go".
She may have regretted it. Hell, Eos regretted most things nowadays, but, she knew if she stayed there any longer, whatever was coming through that door was not going to be stopped by a lycaon. Turning to the other, she'd had to yank Laelaps back by his tail to make him follow her outside and in to the downpour. A rumble of thunder following them as they ran through the darkened streets of Attika.
Only moments after she'd left, Deimos had pushed the door open and walked in. Squeezing the bun on the back of his head, he was about to announce to Melaina that he was leaving, that he had jobs elsewhere that needed his attention, that this was the last time he was going to tell her that she had to accept that Eos was gone, but he stopped. Melaina was stood frozen by the dead mans body, her hand bloodied, her fingers curled around something.
And, there was an overwhelming smell of wet dog.