Mara - The Lady Grief (Completed)

49 Assassins and Kitty

A/N  Caution - Do not read while eating

Time Immortal, The Pit of the Underworld

Thane

I sit down next to my brother with a cup of sacred water in my hand, spitting out a mouthful of blood welling up behind my teeth as I do. I managed to eat dirt a few times, so at least I'm able to clean out some of the grit stuck in my broken teeth.

"So," I cough. Shit, the little fucker hit me hard in the ribs a few times. "Nateos wants us to become gods."

Thelios slants me a look of pure disbelief from his one open eye. "He said-"

"That his daughter deserves a god. Which we," I take a gulp of sacred water and swish and spit, "are not. Not yet."

When Thelios talks his speech is slurred through his broken jaw. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't just wake up and become a god, right?"

"You do not," I agree. I hand him my cup and take out the blade that 'killed' me. The mouth of the pit viper was open before Mara struck it into my back. Now, the snake's mouth is closed tight.

"But, we can find a way to become gods. You said there was a library."

I expect Thelios to protest immediately. Or, if not right away, to think about it and tell me that it's a crazy idea.

Instead, he says, "I remember... a story of the arena. If you fight a god and win, then you can claim power as a boon. We need to take power from a god. Otherwise, it must be gifted to you." He looks into the cup pensively.

"So we fight in this arena and can win our place in the pantheon of gods?"

He shakes his head. "I can't remember," he says, frustrated. "I was never good at studying," he says hoarsely.

"I am," I say bitterly, "and you are the one that grandfather tossed away so easily to die. If it had been me I would remember."

"And I wouldn't have killed Mara!" he snarls.

I hold up a hand, "I'm not trying to insult you, Lios. I'm just saying, if our positions were reversed..."

I rub my hand over my face. Thelios... he is identical to me. We are the same height, the same weight. Our eyes are perfect copies of each other. Our tattoos are different, true. And he no longer has wings, but other than that we look as if we were carved from the same stone.

And he is so different from me. If I had been sent to the Underworld, I would have remembered all of the tomes I studied. If he had been in the above, he wouldn't have harmed Mara. I believe him. I've seen the way he stares at her. Everything else falls away for Thelios while with me... I am always plotting, thinking. She envelopes all my thoughts, always there, but she's not all that's there.

"Lios..." he murmurs. "The Mother showed me a vision of what our lives would have been like, had I lived. We were friends. You called me 'Lios' in that vision," he says quietly.

"We are brothers, dumbass," I say casually.

"We both had wings. And we saw Mara. She was a cute little thing," he doesn't rile up to my insult.

"All elbows and knees, with her hair always a mess," I tell him, remembering the sweet female I met over two years ago.

"How could you kill that beautiful creature?" Thelios whispers.

I look at the dagger. "She betrayed me, so I was told. The pain of that was so awful. I was protecting my heart, I suppose."

"You are an idiot," he says blandly.