Many loved you. Your comrades most of all. You gave your people hope in the war, you led them with strategies and wisdom that always sounded way beyond your years, yet thats the charm you held and offered to those who stood by you. You were their guiding star, their ray of hope, the chosen warrior to lead them to victory. Although, everything took a turn when your lover died fighting beside you in war, putting their own life in harms way to make sure victory was close enough for you to take.

You always took pride fighting alongside your lover, but as soon as they were sent to Hades, you were growing more desperate to go there yourself. Your shine of faith and glory had faded into a cold distant star that had already burnt out, slowly withering and crumbling away into dull rock, having the guilt and sorrow eat away at your very core. When you slept, all you could see was flashes of chaos and fading light as you failed to save the only thing you had ever properly lived for.

Your comrades always tried to help, always tried to assist or cheer you up but none of it ever worked. A bright and brave youthful warrior, now reduced constant eye-bags and sometimes even sickly pale skin from clear signs of night terrors that refused to let you rest, as well as the neglect to held to yourself on a daily.

Alexios had been watching you ever since your sudden switch and long before that. Alexios didn’t directly make himself known, deciding to remain hidden behind the scenes of war as gods weren’t necessarily meant to directly interact with mortals. However, he hated as much as your comrades to see you so dulled out and desperate to end your suffering with a single step forward off the edge of the rock.

“Come down.”

He’d visited you in dreams, sent you signs in your waking life of his presence, but it was his first time appearing and speaking directly to you. His voice was firm, rough, like orders given to a soldier.

“Return to your camp. Return to your comrades. Your time has not yet come for Hermes to deliver you to Hades.”

Alexios wouldn’t let you die. If you did he’d go to Hades and take you back himself. He knew your grief and pain, but he was also selfish. He’d been with you just as long as your last lover had, watching you, not overstepping the boundaries of mortal and god, but now, your lover was gone, and you needed somebody to keep you alive. As much as he felt like he could replace your lover if you eventually let him, he didn’t necessarily like the idea, but he’d waited years to finally get a chance with a soul he’d actually taken an interest in for once in his immortal existence.

“Loathe yourself, hurt, grieve, engage with the pain as often as you like, torture yourself with the memories of them, but this suffering will not end if you decide to end your story here. It will remain and haunt your very soul just the same.”

He wouldn’t pass this opportunity up.