“Ah, yeah, he mentioned that. The rage of Ares isn’t like my rage. Atlas would have stayed in that form, causing chaos across the land and destroying everything in his path forever if it hadn’t been for you. And it was a good job you were there too, what with you being his anchor and all…” He crossed a large finger across his neck and made asliiiicknoise. “You’d be as dead as it gets. So would anyone and anything that had crossed his path.”
“Lovely,” I said, pouting my lips and returning that side eye from earlier.
Aster grinned and then continued. “No, my rage is all to do with what’s going on inside my head and in my environment. If the threat is gone, then I can calm down, and I can do it relatively quickly… after all, I’ve had plenty of practice.”
I still had hundreds of questions running through my head about Atlas, Aster, and Theïkós. But I knew they could wait, and they would have to, because my mind was also too filled with worry to start asking questions.
Something that changed after what felt like hours of walking, and one question started to play on my mind.
“So where are we heading exactly?” I said through a yawn.
I was fit, there was no choice in the matter when it came to surviving the Rift, even at the base. But I hadn’t slept properly since those nights in the hotel, anda lothad happened since then. I could still feel the latest trauma in my back, niggling at my pain receptors. But I refused to acknowledge it, just like the tiredness and the ache in my muscles. We had to keep going.
“We’re not too far now,” he replied.
I didn’t know why it was important, but I asked, “How long in Earth time do you think?”
He twisted enough to cast me a sideways glance.
“Why? Got places to be?”
I let out a humorless laugh. “Atlas, he…”
“Needs you, I know,” Aster finished, cutting me off and catching me off guard.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I said, forcing another small laugh, this time void of sarcasm.
“I would.”
I pulled a face and made a spluttering sound that had Aster smirking before he turned serious, stopping me in my tracks.
“You’re his anchor, Alex… so yeah, he one hundred per cent needs you. But even if you weren’t his anchor, I have known Atlas a long time, and I have never seen him like this with anyone before.” He stopped too, nodding his head as he said these words like he was trying to get me to believe every word. “He’s…” He paused as if he was trying to find the right word for it.
“He’s what?”
“He’s different,” he said, finally making my breath catch in my throat before I pressed for more as my heart hammered in my chest.
It was almost too good to be true, hearing this from his best friend. As if it was only reaffirming what Atlas had told me, but in my hour of doubt, let’s just say it was what I needed to hear.
“In what way?” I asked, lowering my gaze to inspect the soil. The certainty in Aster’s face and voice heated my cheeks.
“He spent his whole life preparing to be King, learning what it meant to lead. Once his parents died, he swore he would do well by them and continue to lead as they did. He made his people his purpose, so there was never room for anyone else.”
Aster turned and continued to walk in the direction we had been walking for ages, but nothing different had appeared. It was just barren land, though it was beginning to incline slowly.
“He never let himself want things that didn’t serve the kingdom,” Aster continued, and well,I let him.“He always thought he would marry for alliances, or maybe even politics. Love was never meant to be part of his story, and he never had any intention of making it so.”
I swallowed hard, the green-eyed monster appearing at the picture he painted, despite his words of alliances and politics.
I didn’t know what to say to that, but I could picture it well enough. Atlas, surrounded by people who needed him, who expected him to be more than human, and him giving every last piece of himself to them. And as if Aster could read my mind, he added,
“It’s like he’s had the whole world on his shoulders.”
I looked up at him, a slight smile on my face as I muttered, “Fitting.”
Aster smiled back.
“You’re right, it is very fitting. But he isn’t the same Atlas you may have heard about in your history. Not the same God. Though his parents did name him after a God.”
