Lion Head Mesa insolitus

akashingo had its own guard. with all that had gone on, they had not met.

with the greek given his task, germanicus set off to locate this figure. unknownst to the eagle for now was the fact that he had once known her as two. 

he looked for sabah, but it would be @Nephele he found that day.

Nephele was here.

Did she want to be? Questionable. They were about to go to war, they were about to start dying like she knew they would, and yet she did not run.

She stayed, for some gods forsaken reason. Perhaps it was loyalty. Perhaps it was duty. Perhaps it was misplaced guilt for up and running out on someone who had been kind to her, who could not see her and understand her goodbye.

Still as the stones she sat upon, Nephele looked at the sky, warring eternally within herself for some semblance of control over her emotions, conflict plain on her features.

germanicus discovered that he was not alone. but his company was surprisingly familiar.

the man came to stand at hand, not so near. "so many things have changed when last i saw you, two."

he felt that he would have known her had he heard this name. but he had not. and he had spent long days away from akashingo.

It was with a wild tilt of her ears and an inhale on the edge of mania that Nephele welcomed Germanicus, her head swiveling, before she slumped again.

Germanicus.

He remembered. He remembered her as Two. Nephele cringed.

I am Two, and Sabah. Both and yet…somehow neither. She mused aloud to herself, closing her eyes for a moment, before taking in the eagle once again.

I was waylaid before the Caldera by Maggie. I’m sure you’ve met her. She did not speak of her fate.

"spies often have two or more names." it was not a judgement. germanicus only wondered. 

the mention of maggie turned his gaze away. "i know her." she lay in state beneath crowfeather's diligent care. but he did not think anyone in akashingo felt maggie would waken and rise again.

"so she has brought you here." the eagle spoke and was silent.

Nephele gave a little snort.

Or those who are running from something. She commented quietly.

Yes. She brought me here, her and Jawahir gave me a new name to replace another. I do not want to leave…not while I know she lives still. I want to stay long enough for her to either wake, or join those in Asphodel. Nephele pressed her ears back.

Eíthe oi theoí na tis charísoun tin eiríni She said, quick and low beneath her breath.

"we might be on the eve of battle. whatever you fear, whatever you are fleeing, do not try to escape reality."

it was not a warning, only the murmur of one soldier to another. two had been a fine hunter. sabah was an honest wolf.

"she is badly injured." how long would two tie herself in akashingo? he heard the quick roll of her words and blinked but did not ask for a translation. "asphodel is your afterworld?"

Nephele ran her tongue across her nose, feeling the pull of scars across her face with every expression.

Reality is not what I fear. Being dragged into conflicts I cannot escape unscathed, again, is. She had held her story to her chest for so long, the blood that ran in rivulets through her fur, the scars that stained every inch of her psyche.

I know. I arrived too late to save her. She cleared her throat.

Asphodel is one of three. She left her rock to stand over a patch of bare, loose dirt, raising her paw.

Elysium, Asphodel, Tartarus. Elysium is for those vaulted heros, demigods, beings of prophecy. She drew a small circle, scratching out the crude shape of a lake with an island in the middle.

Tartarus. Where the demonic rest, the Titans, those who have burned the gods. A deep pit you can never climb out of. She drew a crude canyon.

And Asphodel. The fields of the forgotten. Where people like me go, ordinary in every way, not prophecized heroes. She drew a few squiggles to indicate a field.

All of this presided over by Hades. God of the Dead.

two spoke.

was she two at all or sabah? or were neither of those the name she had been given?

germanicus knew her as a huntress. now he saw her as a soothsayer. she told him of the three levels. he watched as she drew in the dust. 

"tartarus i know." but none of the others. the eagle stared at the markings for a long and grave moment.

hades. "we knew him as pluto." germanicus turned his eyes to the woman. "who taught you these things?"

Nephele inhaled softly.

Others. She placed her paw solidly within Asphodel’s drawing.

Others like me. Serfs, the lowest of the low. I was not lying when I said I was named Two, Dýo. I was born second. I was all who lived. She said, never drawing her eyes away from the fields her paw was sat solidly in, as if she was trying to weigh and accept her fate. The young woman drew a soft breath.

It was her past. It couldn’t hurt her now. And anyways, those nobles who had put her there, those guards who had kept her there..they were dead. Not by her teeth, but they were dead anyway.

serfs. second. germanicus sat near and looked at her paw upon the earth. 

she had become variegated and different-colored before his eyes. it was as if she had not lost her luster, it had only sharpened in a way he did not understand.

germanicus had only ever known respect and the rights afforded to him as prince. and then later as imperator.

"but here you are not second. you have power. what will you do with it?"

Nephele closed her eyes.

Power isn’t something I know, Germanicus. My life has been a serious of decisions others made for me, that I was lucky to be tenacious enough to live through. Even my names haven’t been mine. She opened her eyes. She couldn’t possibly know she could trust Germanicus, but she wanted to hear someone else say her name. The name she had always called herself, even while alone. To hear another voice speak it, even if they pronounced it wrong. Perhaps it would stave off Sabah, perhaps it would solidify her. Nephele did not know, but she wanted to hear another say it.

All except one, that I chose alone. The wolves here know me as Sabah. I’ve been called many things. But I define myself by the name Nephele.

nephele.

it somehow did not fit and fit all the same. the soldier was silent, considering what she had said. "the day i took my first steps, my father carried me to the barracks and handed care of me over to his most trusted captain."

"from that day forward, all i knew was the decisions of others. when i might eat. where i might sleep. to which war i would be sent. to whom i would answer." he looked toward her now. "nephele. if you return to who you were, you will start again."

They were two war torn things, their souls bared clean to each other. Perhaps not all the way, but their circumstances had defined them both in ways Nephele could not currently put a word to, but knew all the same.

They call me head guard here. The ones before them named me Belladonna. Even before that…they called me runner. Making a mockery of my escape attempt. I was a child. She looked to her scarred leg, the jeering of the guards still ringing in her ears all this time later.

Perhaps the problem is I’m not sure who I am. Had she ever really known who she was? Perhaps not.

some part of germanicus was more at peace for having said this to nephele. not two. not sabah. but the woman whom she truly was. 

"it is not something you need to discover all at once," he told her quietly. such revelations were to be given one at a time and taken in the same way. the first step was reclamation of her name, and this had been done.

he straightened. "i am going to see what sort of hunting might be here. will you come with me?"

Nephele drew out a shuddering breath. Accepted, seen, she was Nephele, not Sabah to this man. She was who she had always said she was.

She shook away her own thoughts.

Ill come. It might take my thoughts off everything for a bit.

Perhaps she’d come away from this stronger in her convictions. A stronger person. Or she’d be the same cowardly Nephele. Who knew!

we can fade or keep going! <3

germanicus allowed himself the brief showing of a visible pleasure. he had faith in nephele as a huntress.

he walked smoothly across the crimson sand, trailing until he found the older hoofmarks of the resident antelopes which grazed here. there was no need for words. they would move in unison.

He began walking, and the shadow of a woman followed at his heel, eyes scanning the horizon for prey.

Her chest was less tight, but perhaps she’d keep Nephele to herself for a while.

Im good to fade!