Mortals meet Percabeth (and others)

Hundred Years On {3}

TW: mentions of suicide and death

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Hundred Years On 

NO MIST

Asher had always had a strange relationship with death

From a young age, he learnt that it was a fickle thing. Like many others, he often dreamt about the one question that is always on someone's mind: What happens when I die? And from that question many other questions stemmed from it, the possibilities of each question were too endless and too deep for Asher to go through but the most common questions that followed What happens when I die? Is mostly will I go to a good place or have my sins cut others too deep that I must pay for my own in death?

The answer to that is Asher didn't know 

One thing that Asher did however know was that faith was a very powerful thing and faith could -- and would -- mould someone's life, perceiving what they thought was right and what was wrong. The other thing was that faith was very easy to reform and you could twist it and shape it until it fit your perception of faith. Look at what's happening every day people use their faith and sometimes even religion against those who they deemed lesser to them in some way

Asher saw that as pointless anyway because everyone ends up the same (except him perhaps but he often spends his time with dead people, just learning from their experiences) six feet under, rotting away in the dirt, his safe place honestly 

The point is that time runs out for everyone, whether you believe in one God or a dozen or whether you believed that no God could create the world and you believed in the faith of science, we all believe in something. It is a fact of life that you have to believe in something during your life maybe it's over big philosophical things or maybe it's over something small like what you get for your birthday this year

Belief and faith are the most powerful things in the universe 

But still, time marched on showing that not even hero's -- no matter how invincible they thought they once were -- had no true claim over time and eventually it runs out for even the valiant group of people but in their place rose a new group of heroes with new adventures to live and new stories spilling from their excited mouth as they rush over their words

Percy and the noble group of heroes had proved that time marched on and stopped for no one, it didn't care that you didn't get to say goodbye to your granddad or the heroes that you lost along the way. It forces you to move on whether you're ready to or not, time heals all wounds right? That famous quote that people cling onto in their darkest hours of need...Well Asher doesn't quite see it like that

Being the God of Suicides and often working with lost spirits, he found out that people who commit suicide as a way of release, they feel stuck. Often mental illness is the disease and for those that commit suicide that is the pill that they chose to take to help it

Thousands and thousands commit suicide and it's a different story for everyone

Not everyone who commits suicide has a mental illness either that's one of the myths that Asher found out. And the one thing that he found out (living in the mortal and Godly world) is that when people find their release, it's the people left behind that are broken and left searching for answers often wishing that they had seen the signs sooner or that they had more time with those they loved

Time

That's what this all boiled down to

Death, time, faith and belief

They were all the same thing -- interchangeable really -- as you grow older and more time slips by your belief changes. As a child, you often believe that things will get better when you're an adult and you have faith that you'll know everything when you turn eighteen, twenty-one whatever you class as an adult and you'll have everything figured out and just as you feel like you're figuring everything out, death will come for you in its cold and dark clutches, welcoming you into its  clutches

Because the only thing that is forever is death

Why is Asher explaining all this? It's simple really: Change, everything changes nothing stays the same the only thing that stays the same is death because it's forever, just like he said earlier. And for the demigod world things changed drastically, the Gods were now allowed to see their children and most had an amicable relationship with the other Gods with the minor Gods having more respect and more power at the council meetings

And it all started with one person: Percy Jackson

When they got back to Camp, everyone wanted to hear their story of the newest quest, it was told after dinner by the campfire, and Kayla, Sophia Abe and retold the story Abe letting Asher tell the story of how he summoned lost the Percy Jackson for help when they got lost and although he offered his usual remarks the best being "Oh, Styx are you freaking kidding me? They're abolishing their own rules, you know how long I waited for it. Some people fought a war because they thought it wasn't fair that God's ignore the kids. Seriously if they thought of this like a hundred years ago then life would have been so much easier for me"

Chiron had a few tears in his eyes after that remark (it was well-known that while Chiron cared for all his students) that in modern times Percy and his group of friends was his favourite, even if he did try so hard not to get attached to them, he couldn't deny that Percy was one of his favourites and when he died it was like he lost a piece of his soul 

When all the campers retired to their cabins, only Asher, Abe, Kayla and Sophia were left by the light of a  dying fire, Kayla and Sophia huddled up with each other exchanging soft words and even softer kisses. Asher wasn't surprised, they couldn't often stay mad at each other

Asher catches Abe's eye at smiles

He knew nothing could last forever but he was okay if this moment did