Eternity Glass

X: Detachment

It looks like celestials have their own Victoria and Sydney.

Zafiro halted in place at the sudden thought in his head, the thought that wasn't his own.

Phorisdottir.

His features softened. Not at the realization that she must've met Rezar and Teron nor the fact that she compared them to the cousin and aunt she had no problem walking away from, but at how she managed to reach him. No matter how many times she'd ask him to call her by her given name, he'd never allow himself to. Every day, every second, she proved herself to be the asencir, the true savior of this war.

As for his own...

His last name was long gone. Gone with the history of this kingdom and the grand court it housed. He didn't deserve to keep it. When the castle was bright and lively, he'd been a straw on its back. Skipping his duties and destroying everything as a result.

His father, a nobleman that loved the realm sometimes more than he loved his son, would roll in his grave should he wear it.

He had renounced the name the second Eyal forced him in, restraining his power with the silver cuffs on his wrists. He pushed the memory of it down when Rezar made him bow and kiss his boot. He willed it to the dust he'd find himself covered in in the mornings when even the warmth of his magic left him. He'd never be his father's son.

His mother's name... that was what held him together. The anchor, Phorisdottir had called it. The reason he didn't end it all. He might not be his father's son, the warrior he had to train to be, but he'd always be his mother's. When she was his age, finding her place among the court members, she'd prank the acolytes and priests, sometimes even going as far as to messing with the human world, earning her the name Lady Dragon of Kuzaym.

He would always be her ecuidao, her dragon born.

The ex-apprentice continued his way down the spiral stone staircase and greeted the awaiting daemons with a smile.

I am the favorite of the Lady Dragon.

Each sickly, unfortunate creature turned to face him from their shared cell, a large stone confinement for all the same-faced slaves Eyal couldn't win over. Their clouded eyes took the man in, their charcoal-salivating lips parting in anticipation of whatever could be awaiting them.

I am Zafiro Libelleson.

"I need a favor."

~

Jeremy rolled on the balls of his feet and checked his watch as the fifteenth minute passed of the group waiting for Fallon to summon the Eternity Glass to Lita's manor.

For some reason, the deity thought that having the girl pull a veil between Sky City, as Jeremy liked to call it, and a specific site in the Material Realm while she was dreary-eyed and still sobering up was a valuable lesson. Fallon was just as irritated about it, but after a few more minutes of pushing and prodding, she had managed a flimsy window to her chambers.

Still in her feathered dress and Jeremy still in his three-piece suit that Morgant had to fetch for him because she found every other formal clothing he owned to be insufficient, the mortals collapsed face-first to the mattress.

Tristan snorted, and Fallon, though her feathered pillow, retorted, "Pompous celestial."

"What's it like with such shallow stamina? You humans must go to far lengths to reach—Ouch!"

Jeremy sat up in remembrance. "I brought something."

Morgant's eyes widened as he pulled out two fruit tarts rolled into napkins. "What on earth was going through your head?"