The crossword seemed an entire lifetime ago, a small puzzle River had tackled out of boredom to make his working hours pass quicker. Honestly, he had assumed the answer for the clue—a five letter word for ‘fate’—was a mistake, an error in the newspaper. And yet, he couldn’t forget his mother’s words, ‘fate awaits’, the second time that fate was mentioned.

Now he faced a man, a bitter and arrogant man, but one whose name was the answer—Atreus. Five letters, a word for ‘fate’, awaiting outside of Astera’s Embrace.

“What…” River exhaled heavily as his jaw fell open and sweat beaded across his forehead. He blinked in disbelief, his wide eyes stuck to the man and the scrunched up, appalled face he wore. “What did she just say your name was?” He took a step closer, narrowing his gaze on the man, curious as to what he meant to him, to his mother.

“What are you sensing, River?” Cerys moved in front of him but he stared straight past her, piercing the tall, lean man. The man scowled, a distrustful scorn behind his dark eyes.

“My name is Atreus Castel,” he said in a huff of arrogance and then smirked. “I’m heir to the covenant of Zenith, and protector of Astera’s Embrace.” The words that came out of his mouth held no weight to River, though he had a feeling it was something important.

“Atreus,” River repeated, his heart racing for answers. “That means fate, doesn’t it?”

An exasperated scoff left the man, his gaze turned to Clementine with a dark eyebrow arched up. With no answers from her, his glare flicked back to River, thick dark lashes framing his cold, hard stare.

“I’m not playing this stupid game,” Atreus snapped. 

Clementine sounded far kinder than Atreus as she said, “It means—?” 

Atreus shot her a scathing glare, saved only as Cerys interrupted them.

“We can’t waste time,” Cerys pressed and limped towards Atreus. She grimaced and met his awful scowl with her own. “I demand an audience with the three Heads of Juniperus and Zenith.”

“Granted!” Clementine shoved in front of Atreus, but immediately, he took her arm and tugged her back.

“We aren’t wasting their time with this,” he hissed at her. “They won’t agree and Cerys knows that. This is just another ploy to get inside our wards!”

“And tell me, what exactly would they do inside that would be so bad?” Clementine firmly snapped at him and snatched her arm back. Her kind demeanour shifted to something bitter and wrathful, and though it startled River, it had no effect on Atreus.

“They will bring harm upon us all,” he growled like it was a known fact, a prophecy he foresaw coming.

“That’s paranoia!” Clementine argued. “Cerys wouldn’t do that!”

“Enough, Clementine!” Atreus was fuming. “You are so damn naive when it comes to her, and I have no idea why! She has stolen magic, broken sacred rites—murdered people! And you want to trust in that? To believe she’s a different, better person?”

Atreus disappeared into curls of purple tendrils and emerged between River and Cerys from a swirl of violet smoke, a burn itching across River’s face. He grabbed Cerys’ arm, ignoring her grunt of protest, and shoved her forward to Clementine. He held up Cerys’ arm, showing off the cracks across her skin.

“These marks are proof!” He snapped at Clementine but she refused to look at them, instead grimacing. “This is all the proof you need to know what type of person this bitch is!”

Anger flooded River and he clenched his fist tight, ready to punch the man out, but Cerys held her free hand out for him to stop, to stay back. He couldn’t obey his sister’s silent order and charged forward, Atreus turning towards him as River threw his punch and slammed his fist hard against Atreus’ face. “Call my sister that again, I fucking dare you,” River spat.

Cerys slipped from Atreus’ hold with a gasp, and Atreus rubbed his jaw before he grabbed River by his jacket. “You have no idea who you are messing with, Mundane,” Atreus darkly warned.

“No, you have no idea who you’re messing with, Mythic,” River retorted, snarling at the man before him. “I had just finished a ten hour graveyard shift before I suddenly get attacked and chased by an evil magical cult who really won’t let the fuck up, sending whatever fucking monster that was—didn’t even know that was possible by the way—and now, when I need a little fucking sympathy and help, I have to put up with your entitled, spoiled ass judging my sister for a past I bet no one has the full details for!”

“Neither of you are to be trusted—”

“You don’t have to trust us. You don’t even have to like us, I don’t like you, but we need help. By all means become our fucking babysitter if it makes you feel better, or appoint someone who can, but give us a chance!”

River panted heavily, done with his outburst. Atreus regarded him carefully, his amber gaze piercing through River.

“Zenith will protect us, right, Atreus?” Clementine spoke, her hand on Atreus’ chest as he pushed him back, away from River. He let go of River’s jacket, hand falling to his side in a clenched fist.

“They’re supposed to,” said Atreus. “But who knows what kind of tricks she’ll pull. We can’t underestimate her.”

“You can’t underestimate Zenith either. If something goes wrong inside, they’ll handle it.” Clementine’s voice sounded certain.

Atreus held her strong, determined gaze, and after a long, pregnant pause, he exhaled a heavy breath. With a tight jaw, he gritted out, “fine.”

Clementine jumped up in glee, turning to Cerys and River with a bright, gleaming smile.

“Our parents won’t be happy,” Atreus added.

Clementine flipped her smile onto him, “they never are!”

“So you’ll grant us refuge?” River asked, his heart beating in his chest. Finally, finally, their nightmare could come to an end.

“No,” Atreus snarled at him and crossed his arms over his chest. Though he gave in to Clementine, it didn’t change his attitude towards the two siblings. He couldn’t glare harder if he wanted to, his eyes narrow and tight on River and Cerys. “I’ll trust the Head of my coven to make a sensible judgement. Make sure not to take for granted your brief respite inside our sanctuary.”

“Thank you, Atreus,” Cerys muttered but avoided both his and Clementine’s gaze. She hugged herself, her hands spread to cover herself but to no avail.

River shrugged off his jacket and draped it over Cerys’ shoulders, meeting her tired green eyes with a look of assurance. “So,” he said, turning his attention to Clementine and Atreus, where it seemed Atreus was getting an earful from Clementine. “How does this work?”

“By the Stars, mundanes are hopeless,” Atreus muttered.

Clementine smacked his arm and then shoved him to the side. She held her arms out in front of the entwined trees, the window to the lake beyond still glistering in golden light. “It’s like a normal Gate, the one I made for us, but… Bigger. Like before, you just have to step through.”

River recalled the seizing pain of when he passed through Clementine’s gate and through the opening Cerys made into his mother’s room. As he stared at Astera’s Gate, framed by tall entwined trees arched over to form the entrance into their sanctuary, he worried about the pain he would feel. Magic oozed from the gate, the very thing glowing from its abundance.

“It’ll be over before you know it,” said Cerys, her hand over River’s shoulder with a reassuring squeeze. She slid her hand down to his hand and tugged him along, leading him to the Gate. “We’ll go in together.”

River grimaced reluctantly, breathing out a nervous breath.

“Hurry up and get in before I change my mind,” Atreus huffed and turned on them, taking confident, uncaring steps as he walked through the Gate.

A brighter glow ignited as he passed, sparkles of golden light flying off into the air around them. River parted his lips, amazed to see Atreus inside, his arms still folded and his face still an ugly, impatient scowl.

After a deep inhale through his nose, River began to jog on the spot, shaking out his free arm to build up some adrenaline and courage. “I can totally do this. I’ve already suffered so much this morning. What's a little more?” He smiled nervously at Cerys but she smiled distantly, too exhausted, weak and in pain.

He hadn’t realised how bad of a shape she was in, having expected her to be able to shake it off and carry on, but he supposed even Cerys had a limit. Now he had another reason to swallow back his apprehensions and endure.

River squeezed her hand, and pulled her along with him. Quickly, he rushed through the Gate, golden light blinding him as he passed through.

Warmth flooded over him, a hot bath for his aching muscles, and for a brief moment, it didn’t hurt but tickled, like feathers brushing against his skin. Until those feathers turned to sandpaper against his skin, flaying his skin away. River itched and stung and burned, his nerves sliced open and set ablaze with hellfire.

He cried out, but no noise came out. He parted his eyes wide, desperate for help from his agony, and met the world on the other side of the Gate. The glistening blue lake, the plush grass beneath his feet, and the man whose name may or may not mean ‘fate’.

Darkness ebbed at River’s vision, Atreus’ harsh stare shifting to something kind, worried as he was when he first met him, and then everything faded to black.

Perhaps Clementine was right after all... Atreus was soft on those shit out of luck.