Luneshale Pass perfect machine

He ran.

Through field and mountain, he did not stop, his paws eating up the stubble ground with every labouring stride. In his wake, blood smeared the earth, his paws dried and cracked from the relentless race. The Southern sun beat down on him with Father Fire's wrath.

Rain never came; relief disappeared with his name.

When Aelius' finally collapsed, he found himself sinking into a near waterless expanse. A single stream trickled through the midst of the barren land. He dragged himself towards it, but stopped short, nose hovering just above the waterline.

He had left, and no one had followed.

Dammit, Acheron! he struck the water with anger, dammit, Athena!

This wasn't how it was supposed to end! He could still feel his brother's face against him, turned away as their father moved them about a board of his own making. He was nameless now; @Faceless. But they were all pawns to him, weren't they? And now his brother would die in the Grove, just as he would die here with the gilded rays of the setting sun.

Shadows darkened his yellow eyes.

He dipped his head, and drank.