The Unknown Divinity

The First Signs

The crowd soon disperses and Astraeus is staring at Aileen's dangling body. Kaja finds him and rushes towards him, hugging him tightly. She screams, "You weren't supposed to see that! Please, let's go home!" She drags him back to his hut and he is silent the whole way there. When they arrive, he walks inside and slams the door. Kaja tries to talk to him but he ignores her.

Inside the hut, Astraeus makes his way to Aileen's desk and grabs the letter. He stares at it, realizing the writing on the front which reads his name is not in his grandmother's handwriting. He opens the letter and begins reading the note inside. It begins, "Dear Astraeus, if you are reading this then something has happened to Aileen as she was supposed to prevent this letter from ever getting into your hands. If such a case then you are most likely searching for the answer as to why it occurred."

It continues, "I am unable to see the future but I can guess as to what happened, she was arrested and killed by the government looking for me. I am Xander Ilios, the most wanted man in the country of Fos and your father." Astraeus stops reading here and looks visibly confused. He continues, "There is so much I want to tell you here in this letter but I am running out of time so I will only tell you what you need to know and what lies ahead of you. You are the child of myself and the enemy. Your mother was sent to this nation to spy on me and figure out my weaknesses, and in her time here, we fell in love. Eventually, the country found out she was a spy from Erebos. She was to be executed and I couldn't let that happen, so I helped her escape and became a fugitive. While we were on the run, you were conceived and born, but we knew we couldn't let you live like this. So, I gave you to the mother of a dead comrade of mine in hopes you would live a normal life. But with this letter being found then that means that normal has been uprooted."

Astraeus puts the letter down and walks around, his mind racing with thoughts about how his entire life to this point has been nothing but a lie. Once he is able to calm himself down, he finishes the letter, "As such, it is only a matter of time until someone finds out the truth of your birth. The man who figured out your mother's true identity was a man known as Nomiki and it is likely he will be the one to find out your connection to me. Knowing him, he will use you to drag me out of the shadows and if I don't he will kill you for being useless to him. For your sake, my son, you need to leave. Like me, you will need to keep moving and keep going forward. "

He takes this letter, crumples it up, and throws it in the fireplace. As it burns, a knock is heard at the door. A voice from behind it says, "Halloo. Astraeus, are you in there? It's me, Nomiki. I need to investigate Aileen's home for any evidence and if you don't let me in I can arrest you for contempt." Hearing he could be arrested, he opens the door and he sees that pale man with enough clothes to fill a closet again. Nomiki says, "Aren't you a dear, I'm sorry about interrupting your grieving but I have to do my job. Since Aileen was an associate of Xander, and I am in charge of finding him, then it would be in my best interest to search her home for anything that could lead me closer. Now then, if you don't mind I need to tear this place down but don't worry if I don't find anything then I will leave after cleaning up." He walks in before Astraeus can say anything

He begins walking around, inspecting cabinets, drawers, and any spot that looks hidden. As he does this, he makes small talk with Astraeus. He says as he lays under a table inspecting the underside, "So, Astraeus, what do you plan to do? With your grandmother out of the picture, I doubt you plan to stay here." Astraeus answers the man, "I don't know sir..." Nomiki gets up and responds, "How old are you, kid?" He answers, "Fifteen..." The man laughs, "Fifteen, and you don't know. Poor kid, when I was fifteen I was already a soldier. Used to work directly under Xander when he was a corporal. Because of him, we were one of the best troops Fos ever saw. Then because of our deeds our troop was given the god of light's blessing. I just ended up being blessed with air magic and he became the Light Mage. I looked up to him but he ended up disappointing me when he ran off with that Erebos slut." His fist clenches and Astraeus can see blood coming from his hand. Nomiki's expression soon calms down as soon as he realizes what he said, "Sorry about my language but talking about him made me a little bit furious. But the place doesn't appear to be hiding anything, so I'll be going. But if you end up not knowing what to do now, I recommend joining the army." He takes a look at the fireplace and points his finger at it, as he does a strong gust of wind appears from nowhere causing the fire to go out. He says, "A kid shouldn't be alone with a lit fire." He makes his way toward the door but looks back at Astraeus before leaving. His baggy eyes piercing him "Don't go getting in trouble Astraeus, or I'll have to come find you and give you the same treatment as little old Aileen." He exits and closes the door, Astraeus falls to the ground from the stress.