[NOTE: I will not be posting updates here in the future. You can find the rest of the story on AO3.] Folk healer Lyric of Lalaia longs for more. Her life is pleasant and quiet, containing her like a painted pot. But as it turns out, even flowers grieve. When a handsome mercenary comes to her for healing, a choice presents itself: she can continue wilting in the stillness, or she can follow a perfect stranger into a world unknown, to seek the sea that beckons her. In this reimagining of the Eagle Bearer's journey, Alexios stares down a hardened world alongside a woman made of light and honey. Theirs is a story about freedom, faith, and family- and what it means to love a hero. • -- ٠ ✤ ٠ -- • ✤ A canon-divergent retelling of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. ✤ Contains sexual content; canon-compliant & graphic violence; mentions of past abuse; conversations around sex work, child loss, death, familial trauma, and grief. ✤ An acknowledgement: The story contains OCs that belong to me and a couple of my very dear friends, and a majority of them have been imported from other worldstates in which we have previously written together. It has been a joy to bring life to them in Greece. Thank you Knot & Root for your support and participation! Lyr & Zeph would be lost without your characters, just as I would be lost without you. ✤ Please note: edited versions of chapters 1-8 were uploaded, as well as an updated story summary, on Nov. 13th, 2023. Edits were to improve clarity, grammar, and syntax to improve flow. Nothing about the story has changed!

[Published/Award-Winning Short Story] This is a published piece that remains free to read on Wattpad courtesy of Henshaw Press. "I've been trapped on this ghostly platform with five other people for hours, waiting for a train with no destination. I know why we're bound here, but one of us shouldn't be." ------------------------------------ Short story 2400 words #46 in Paranormal #47 in Short Story • Winner of HenshawPress Competition. • Published April 2017