A Town Demolished

“Yield?” She asked calmly. He gaped. Hand flexing around nothing in shock. Carex gritted his teeth, fuming and unwilling to admit his total defeat. A glance out to the crowd revealed Alexander with a gloating smirk, and Aerin next to him, staring with an odd intensity at Asteria.

Argan stepped in, all eyes staring widely at Asteria. “The new student wins!” He declared to the shocked crowd, who broke into an uproar. Carex fumed and stormed off, dragging Argan back into basic drills with him. Asteria scoffed at their cheers and stepped to the side, back to Rhei.

He smiled at her as she dropped into a crouch in front of him.

“As I said, I am strong.”

“I believed you,” He promised. “But the demo was nice. Your hair…”

She ran her fingers through the short strands, lifting a lock and tilting her head with a smirk. It had been cut at an angled slant, the hair on her right brushing her shoulder while the other side barely reached past her chin

“Is inconsequential," She dismissed.

“The short look suits you.”

Asteria was unwittingly charmed by the mortal’s considerate compliment and smiled momentarily before it slipped into a scowl. “However, I should not have allowed Carex’s blade to reach me at all.”

“Do you normally fight with daggers?” He asked, and she nodded. “As a weapon, they’re at an inherent disadvantage… but the way you fought was so fluid it didn’t seem to matter. It was beautiful.” She frowned at him, the compliment unsettlingly familiar.

“They are my weapon of choice, but I’m trained at others if need be. As I have said, I am strong. So,” she glowered at him. “Will you fight me now?”

He shook his head. “I said I didn’t doubt you were strong, and I meant it.” He flapped his hand slightly. “It doesn’t change my refusal to fight you.”

She scowled. “At least meet my eyes when you talk to me—” She reached out to brush his bangs away from his eyes, only for him to jerk back and scramble into a standing position. She followed suit, climbing to her feet as he recoiled. His eyes were wide and dark beneath his bangs.

“Don’t—don’t touch me. I’m serious.”

“You defy me—” Asteria started, and was immediately interrupted by a loud bell—the end of classes for the day. Rhei bowed awkwardly in farewell and ran off.

Asteria scowled after him, half-minded to chase the boy down. Before she could decide, a gentle tap on her arm drew her attention. Ima wandered over while she was distracted.

Ima pouted at her. “Your beautiful hair,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. People will think you’ve lost someone important.” Her eyes drifted over to where Rhei had disappeared, and Asteria realized she was probably trying to figure out if it was somehow his fault.

“So?” Asteria didn’t care what the mortals thought of her, but wondered if the haircut was somehow Moirai's way of mocking her.

Ima blinked. “It’s pretty taboo to cut your hair short if you’re not in mourning,” she warned. “They say it brings bad energy to your loved ones.”

Asteria ran her fingers through her newly shortened hair, brushing the jagged edges over her shoulder with a wry smile. “It is fine, then.” Asteria dismissed. “I suppose it’s fitting.”

Ima frowned slightly. “You mean…”

Asteria glanced over Alista, who had appeared across the field and was giving Alexander and Aerin tips. Her hair, which only barely brushed her shoulders—shorter than anyone else’s Asteria had seen—swayed lightly in the breeze.

She turned back to Ima. “What about Alista—” The cow-eared girl shook her head before Asteria could finish the question, hushing her as the group headed their way.

“It’s a big tragedy among the guards,” she whispered quickly. “But we usually don’t talk about it.”

“Sheesh! What’d you do to poor Rhei?” Alista jested as she reached them, golden armor gleaming as it caught the afternoon light, and the four circular scars beneath her eyes crinkled as she smiled.

“I didn’t do anything,” Asteria snapped. “He’s just weird.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Alista laughed as Aerin and Alexander reached her side.

“Hello Ima! I didn’t know you were still in class,” Aerin chirped as if he hadn’t spoken to them earlier—accompanied by a wink to prove he was joking and somehow aware of the registration issues. He turned to Asteria and continued. “He’s right to avoid you. It’s not safe to get close to Rhei.”

“He is my deskmate,” Asteria deadpanned, genuinely puzzled.

The four exchanged glances. Finally, Alexander sighed. “You’re new, so I guess no one told you.”

“Told me what?”

“He’s dangerous.” Asteria tilted her head, waiting for him to elaborate. That wasn’t exactly the vibe she’d gotten from the boy, weird or not. “Death and destruction follow him,” Alexander continued grimly, his voice low.

Asteria crossed her arms. “I do not buy it.”

“You’ve heard about what happened to Piraeus, right?”

“No, I have not.”

Alista shook her head in disbelief. “Wow, I figured everyone would have heard about it. It was major news, even the other sanctuaries received word.” Her bemused expression implied she had resolved not to expect Asteria to know anything ever again.

Alexander continued. “A few days after he was born, the entire port city burned to the ground. Ships sank, the docks collapsed, and hundreds of people died. He was the only survivor. Not long after, the Keramos Strait dried up.” Asteria dutifully noted that some stretches of the sea had remained for centuries after the Mediterranean had dried up.

“And people blamed him. A baby.” Asteria pointed out dryly. Sure, godly babies could get into trouble; she’d heard her nephew complain enough about the newborn Hermes before, but to blame a human baby, the useless things that couldn’t even walk, for the destruction of a city was ridiculous.

“So how did he survive?” Alexander countered darkly. “And since then, it’s been the same story. People around Rhei don’t die in disasters. They get in accidents, become sick, sometimes they die out of the blue. The General of the West Gate—who picked him up after Piraeus—ended up crippled, and his foster mother fell ill and died within a year.

“He gets hurt, too,” Aerin added. “Constantly. It’s like bad luck clings to him. It affects anyone nearby. That’s why no one gets close. Nothing is guaranteed… but it's too risky.”

“Surely it is overexaggeration.”

“Is it?” Aerin countered, narrowing his orange eyes. “It’s not like he’s a bad person, but he knows how dangerous it is—that’s why he didn’t want you touching him.”

Asteria frowned, glancing at the door where Rhei had vanished. The memory of his panicked flinch came back to her. “He cannot control his mageia?”

Aerin shook his head. “Not at all. And it’s significantly worse for those without Blessings, since their mageia seems to act as a bit of a buffer. A few years back, before we entered the academy, his deskmate died the day after he bumped into Rhei.”

Asteria stared, expression reading she was, for all intents and purposes, his Unblessed deskmate.

“Ah, well… you do have mageia though, right? That should protect you a little.” He hmm’d. “And some sort of seal placed on you?”

Asteria blinked at him. Even Argan hadn’t noticed the seal.

He tapped under one of his brilliant orange eyes, the light catching the concentric rings around his pupil. “I can see it. That’s a powerful ward you’ve got on you.”

She shifted away, suddenly wary of Aerin’s bright grin. “... Yes. It is only a matter of time until I break it.”

Alista nodded along seriously, hands closed and one hand to her chin as if she was in deep thought. “You fought well today,” the older woman praised, the four dots below her eyes crinkling with her smile. “You’ve got good instincts, and have a Blessing after all. Any thoughts on joining the guard?”

“Eh.” Asteria dismissed, earning another laugh from the boisterous general. Asteria sighed. “Do I get anything if I do?”

“The honor of fighting to protect our—kah!” Alexander was cut off by yet another friendly elbow from Aerin.

“Hmm… Well, if protecting our honorable city doesn’t do it for yah,” Alista considered. “There’s a pretty good paycheck.”

Asteria tilted her head. “Oh.” She could sell the pearls she’d gotten from Kastallia, but she didn’t have much else in the way of gaining funds. “I shall participate, in that case,” she decided, won over. Alexander glared—probably offended by her very clear lack of altruism—while Aerin giggled.

Alista grabbed her hand and gave a hearty shake. “You'll need a weapon then. I wouldn’t recommend a sword for you personally…”

“I know,” Asteria cut her off. “I am not so novice as to hold a sword like a dagger on accident.”

Alista raised her hands in good-natured surrender. “Of course. Well, Hester is my pick for smith. She can be pricey, but she gets the job done fast.” Alista gestured vaguely over her shoulder. “You’ll find her at the Academy’s sponsored smithy on weekends. We can meet there tomorrow. I’ll introduce you.”

“Alright.”

Alista’s eyes flitted up to the sky, concern knitting her brow. “We’ll need all the help we can get,” she murmured, lost in thought and oddly subdued.

Asteria turned to Alexander, looking for an explanation. He sighed. “Last night. The astronomers realized the stars had moved.”

Asteria began to raise her eyebrows in an ‘so what’ motion before she remembered the conversation with Ed. Astrological time should not be moving.

Aerin was also looking concerned. “We don’t know when their movement resumed, and they’re not moving in the same way described in Pretitanomachy records, but if this continues… For the first time in over a thousand years,” he confessed, “the Auriga is going to be visible above Athens.”

“Pallas’s constellation?” Asteria questioned, confused about why it mattered. The pair’s gaze sharpened as she immediately clocked the constellation, and they nodded in sync.

“Athena sent out a warning,” Alista chimed in, looking down from the brightly lit sky. “We don’t hear from our Lady much, but she declared a state of emergency. It’ll be all-hands for the next few days if the sky keeps changing. If Pallas is able to attack Athens, he will.”

“And he cannot normally?”

“An old curse set on Pallas,” Alista explained. “He was confined to the land under the constellation before Kronos froze universal time. Athens wouldn’t still be here if he hadn’t been sealed away.”

Asteria scanned her memory for anything on Pallas; what had happened to him during the Titanomachy. The only thing that came to mind was that Pallas was one of his brothers. She vaguely remembered the titan being hell-bent on defeating Athena, so Asteria supposed the story checked.

Aerin turned his gaze outward, expression serious, looking for all the world as if he could see all the way to where the titan himself was confined. “Things aren’t looking good.”

Alex clarified. “A patrol was sent out last night, but they should have returned by now.

Alista shook herself and smiled down at Asteria. “It won’t matter much for you, since you’re a newbie,” she assured her. “Well,” Alista said, shaking off the tension, “Enough doom and gloom! Educere sent me to take you to your dorms. No one else wanted to volunteer…” She threw a pointed look at Aerin and Alexander, who shrugged awkwardly.

Asteria sighed. “Lead the way.”