The threat of his intuition never left him, but in his distraction, River hadn’t noticed it trying to warn him that a monster was just a breath away. 

Large like a behemoth bear, the beast’s front arms were huge and long with crooked elbows bent outwards and its three-pronged hands planted on the ground backwards. Its grey, pallid flesh seemed to rot and droop from its fat, bulging body, its head a bloody mess of skin and bone, two huge eyes clouded, and its muzzle squashed-in with sharp fanged tusks.

Clementine stood frozen in terror, unable to move, to blink, to even breathe.

“Clementine!” River cried out and his voice electrified her back to life, a frightened cry escaping her as she trembled and stepped back and her legs gave out beneath her. She slumped before the beast, her breaths rapid and loud, hyperventilating as the beast let out another deafening screech before it smacked Clementine away. She collided with the ground at the end of the slope, a short distance from River and the Gate. He screamed as he ran towards her, instinct driving him to grab her and get through the archway door, to the lake within.

He prayed they wouldn’t be followed, prayed he would reach Clementine in time.

Pain struck his shoulders and bloomed at the back of his head, knocked down before he even knew it. The monstrous beast loomed over him, its hand heavy against his chest, pinning him against the dirt. Death and rot reeked from its flesh, the taste of bile and blood thick in River’s mouth.

He kicked and squirmed, clawing his nails against the beasts’ hand only for the rotted skin to melt off and stick to River’s fingers. He then saw the fractured cracks across the skin, burned through the raw flesh beneath, and soon recognised the cursed creature…

It was the joined-Mythics.

How was it here when Cerys stayed behind to hold it back? Where was she? What happened to her? 

The thoughts raced through River’s mind, rage and fear overwhelming him beyond his own self-preservation.

“Cerys!” River screamed and thrashed, trying to reach for his necklace to summon his sister, but the beast’s hand had covered it. He repeated his cry for Cerys, fear choking him as tears burned in his eyes. Another screech came from the beast, silencing River, and left an aching ringing in his ears. It peered down at him, those clouded eyes reflecting his useless state pinned to the ground.

He recalled the way his father spoke of magic when he was a boy, to truly envision what he wanted, demand action and to expect anything and everything. So River tried, even though he knew it was futile. He tried to will forth magic he didn’t have, tried to imagine a gale like Cerys could conjure, fire and light to scorch all in its path, ice to freeze, burn and shatter away bodies like fallen ice, acid to melt flesh and bone—anything to get the monster off him, to help Clementine, to go find Cerys.

“Do something!” He screamed out at himself, his will changing from what he could imagine to a demand he gave his own ability, his intuition. It needed to work, to do more than just feel and sense things he couldn’t even run from. “Anything!”

The beast suddenly flung off, a groaning cry escaping it as it flew beyond the hill and crashed through several trees. River coughed with the weight off his chest and panted, hope and excitement spreading through his aching body.

Did I do that?

“Are you alright?” A voice called out and instantly, River’s excitement diminished, aware now he was saved. Again.

Dropping to a knee, a man joined River’s side, his amber-brown eyes narrowing on River’s body. He held out his tanned hands and a purple glow emitted from his palms. River coughed and hissed in pain, the burn boiling his skin, and immediately the purple glow ceased. Confusion and shock were wrought across on the stranger’s face, his eyes flicking to River’s for an answer, when the roar of the monster interrupted them again.

It wasn’t over, River’s gut warning him of the obvious threat coming back to them.

“They’re Mythics,” he gritted through his teeth and forced himself to sit up. “Fused together.”

The man furrowed in disgust, his gaze turned to the woods he had sent the beast flying through.

“Help Clementine,” he sternly said. “Wake her up, her magic will heal her. I’ll deal with the eldritch abomination.” He ran off before River could respond, dispersing into tendrils of purple smoke. River wondered if he were like Cerys, powerful enough to face the Everlasting Servants.

Time would have to tell.

Clementine lay unconsciously still on the ground, and River painstaking stumbled over and fell to his knees beside her, the impact a numb shock, pain only joining the ache of his body like a drop in an ocean. He checked her breathing, anxiety building with the fear of his dead sister and now dead new friend, guilt chasing that fear with self-deprecating blame. They are like this because you’re too weak.

Clementine’s steady breath exhaled from her, warm against River’s hand. Quickly, he took her shoulders and tried to wake her, his gentle touch turning rough when she wouldn’t stir.

She gasped loudly and shot up, a cry of pain escaping her before she slowed her breathing and placed a bruised, bleeding hand over her throat. A white glow came from her touch, light igniting beneath the entirety of her skin before her wounds closed up and the bruises faded away to nothing, the light dispersing soon after.

Relief spread warm and thick through River and he met her assuring smile with his own.

“Neat trick,” he said, a small bitter chuckle leaving him as he dropped his head to Clementine’s shoulder.

“Let me heal you,” she urged but River pulled away, shaking his head.

“Some guy just showed up, saved our asses and tried to fix me up, but…” A heavy breath left him, too tired and resentful to explain his ailment. “We should go, right? To Astera’s Embrace.”

“Some guy? Where is he?” Clementine stood without an ounce of reluctance or pain, while River groaned to his feet. She quickly joined his side, sliding an arm under his shoulders and he gladly leaned against her.

“He went after the monster,” River said. “His magic, it was purple… Do you know him?”

The forest shook with another demonic screech and River swallowed dryly, anxiety rising for the sake of his saviour. Fallen trees boomed off in the distance, cracks of shattered wood loud through the forest, and a shout of anger snapped in the air with an impact of magic. The force rebounded through the air and under their feet.

Anxiety wrought itself through River, but when he focused on his intuition, he was met with silence, yet he doubted if the beast was stopped and if the purple Mythic had made it.

Clementine exhaled shakily, leading them forward towards the entwined trees, the lake in the distance visible through the archway. “He’s capable, trained to protect and defend,” she said, desperate to convince herself her words were true, “and strong too. Let’s go, I’ll call for backup and they’ll join his aid—”

“No need.”

The duo spun around and the man from before, River’s saviour, walked away from a swirl of purple mist. River and Clementine broke into a smile, before relief soared through him and his knees grew weak. 

On the man’s back, he carried Cerys.

Blood was smeared across her face, arms and hands, and matted thickly in her hair, but she moved and smiled widely at River, a sign she was okay.

River broke off from Clementine’s side and rushed towards his sister. The man lowered her to the ground where she stood unsteadily and held her arms out, allowing River to slam into her embrace. Tears burst from his eyes and he sobbed into the crook of her neck, uncaring for the blood and grime all over her.

“I didn’t mean it!” He cried out, squeezing her tightly against him. “I didn’t mean it, when I said ‘half-sister,’ you’re more than that, you’ve always been, no matter what…” He rambled on, half-coherent in his tearful sobs, while Cerys stroked his head and listened. “You’re my family, Cerys, my only family. You can’t leave, you can’t risk your life like that, you can’t run ahead without a plan, you can’t—”

His voice broke and all he could do was cry, and cry, and cry. Cerys didn’t seem to mind, only offering sweet murmurs of assurance. “I know you didn’t mean it, River. We’re family, families say awful shit to each other sometimes. I won’t leave you, I’ll never leave you again. I’m here, okay? I’m here.”

River’s tears calmed to a stop and Cerys parted to wipe his tears away despite the water tracks down her face. She smiled at him, her touch gentle and tender.

“What happened? How did that thing get here? Is it gone? Where were you?” River’s questions flew out of him and he waited, patiently for Cerys to respond. Part of him expected her to tell him ‘not now’ or ‘later’ but she merely brushed his hair out of his face and sighed.

“The naked guy who preached how he ascended past me? He sent the cursed Mythics after you. I don’t know how he, or any of them for that matter are tracking you, but they are. I dealt with him then came here as soon as I could.”

“She helped me put an end to it,” the man interjected and when River turned to thank him, he met a cold, hard glare instead. He stood in front of the Gate, his brown tan arms crossed over his chest. He leered down at River, brow furrowed tightly, before they flicked with absolute disgust to Cerys. “I brought you here, to your brother, as thanks for your assistance. Now leave.”

“No!” Clementine cried out and smacked him across his bicep. “You can’t, they need our help!”

“We don’t help people like them, Clem,” he spat harshly, his glare unmoving. “They’re as cursed as the eldritch abomination.”

“Say what you want about me but don’t you dare talk about my brother like that!” Cerys shot back, taking a weak step forward, her arms shaking as fire glowed from the porcelain fractures in her arms. “He had nothing to do with my past endeavours, he’s a victim in this. If you won’t allow me sanctuary, then please! Allow it to him.”

“No.” He didn’t hesitate.

“How can you be so cruel?” Clementine hissed at him. “It’s not our right to reject or deny people refuge. The Gate appeared before him, it found him! Just like it found Cerys once before. If they were dangerous, it wouldn’t have chosen them, you know that to be true, Atreus!”

Atreus.

Where had River heard that before? The man’s name sounded familiar but he couldn’t place it, his mind racing to recall mention of it or what it even meant. He furrowed his brow and stared intently at the man, as if the answers were written on his face, and when his amber eyes met his own, River’s stomach dropped.

‘A five letter word for ‘fate.’’

‘Return, quickly, to her Embrace, where tears break and fate awaits.’

‘Atreus.’