The Deal || Sanders Sides

16. The Wrath Of The Gods

So many plans, so little time to write them.

There were two very large foreshadowing things in the last chapter, and most people only found one

TW: swearing, talk of plague/famine/death, angst,

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Logan found Patton standing by the rail of the ship alone, staring out into the ocean. He seemed to be deep in thought, the conflict in his head clear in his expression. Logan knew that look. It was the look of someone who didn't know what choice was the better one. It was a look he saw often in the castle, from royalty and servants alike.

"You seem to have something on your mind." Patton glanced at him, but it was almost like he was looking elsewhere. Deep in memories that no one knew, Patton could only nod to show he'd heard Logan. "Care to talk about it?" Patton shook his head. "I won't force you, but I do recommend you talk about it. I won't tell anyone a word you say."

"It's just... do you know how I came to the castle?" Patton asked quietly. Logan was puzzled, but he knew this had to be going somewhere, so he didn't question it too much.

"Yes, you came about a year before I started training to be a royal advisor," Logan said. "Everyone said you came in and knelt down and begged-"

"-for any bit of work the royals could give me," Patton finished. "I begged for my life."

"There must be more to the story than that though, if you're bringing it up," Logan pointed out. "I don't think anyone has ever heard about how you came to the castle in the first place. Only what happened once you arrived."

"My parents and I lived on the island across the sea. You all call it the other land, but it was home." Patton took a deep breath. "The island was full of sickness. We were struck with a plague and famine, and large storms started to rip apart the land. Everyone claimed it was the wrath of the gods. Soon, most of us were dead or leaving. The land was cursed, they all said. We had to leave."

"But curses don't exist."

"That doesn't matter. Everyone believed that they did, and so we had to leave." Patrons voice was shaking slightly. "We got a boat. A really large boat. We went to the water. There were others with us. We thought we could leave. There were so many storms we fought through until we got to the open water. Everything was fine for awhile, but then we got halfway here."

"What happened?" Logan asked softly.

"A storm struck." Patton's eyes glittered with tears. "We thought- we thought we could get through it. We almost made it. We were so close. And then our boat started being pulled. Someone screamed about a whirlpool."

"Whirlpools don't get that big in open water though," Logan said, quite intrigued. "Are you sure it was a whirlpool?"

"I saw it with my own eyes," Patton whispered. "It was the largest thing I'd ever seen. We couldn't stop ourselves from getting pulled right into it. Up until that point, I hadn't really believed in the wrath of the gods. I hadn't thought anything could ever be that cruel. But that day I learned the most important lesson of my life."

"What was it?"

"The gods don't care. I saw the wrath of the gods that day when that whirlpool swallowed our entire ship, and everyone that was on it. I felt the wrath of the gods as I was whipped around and pulled through the water like a rag doll. And I knew the wrath of the gods when I woke up on the beach of this place all alone. I was halfway across the ocean, with no explanation of how I got here. I was alone, scared, and I'd seen my family and our friends get sucked into their deaths."

"That's horrible," Logan murmured. "I'm so sorry, Patton. I had no idea. I'm still not sure you could've been in the middle of the ocean, though. You had to have been on the coast."

"Were there any storms before I showed up?" Patton asked.

"Pardon?"

"I asked if there were any storms before I showed up," Patton repeated.

"Not that I can remember," Logan said.

"I told you, the gods are cruel. If you ever find your life in their hands, you'll realize that there is no reason to pray. They will not listen to prayers." Patton wiped a stray tear off of his face, looking out over the ocean again. "The cruelest punishment they can ever give you is seeing everyone you love die, and then forcing you to live. Our ship went down in the biggest whirlpool I've ever seen in the center of the ocean, and I woke up here. That is the true wrath of the gods."

And without a word more, Patton walked back towards their shared room, leaving Logan staring after him with shocked and sad eyes.

845 words.