Young Writers Society

Hnng. Of course someone in the group had decided to follow her. And none other than the very frightened god Télos.

"You have no need to join me," Enide said. Her ears twitched at the sound of a conversation in the distance; she automatically turned to the right to avoid running into them. Better to go around and spy on them from the distance, especially since she didn't recognize nor trust the voices. "I am just looking for our cat creature."

"I know," Télos cheerfully replied, easily noting Enide's tone. It was a tone that he was quite familiar with - the antisocial one that Aleks had a tendency to use whenever he wanted to be alone, which was always a bit awkward because he had a built-in best friend. "I wanted to help look for him. He's pretty important to Sevy, from the little I've seen."

He looked over at her and gave her a sheepish smile. "Plus, I don't want to be there for another weapon mishap. That last one scared the living daylights out of me, and I really don't need another sudden surprise."

A faint smile tugged at the edges of Enide's mouth. "That would be wise, yes," she said. "It may be rather archaic of me, but I would rather place my confidence in what has worked for me." She gestured to the scabbard at her hip.

Casey jumped a little at Zalio's comment, but once what the suit of armor had said registered to him, he nodded quickly.

"Oh, yes, you're right. Maybe I shouldn't even have a-" he cut himself off with a little gasp as Zalio came into view. He didn't look at all like what Casey was expecting.

Sevy grinned a little as he gently took the gun out of Casey's hands, looking over Zalio's form with a cocked head.

"Hey, your invisibility potion or whatever wore off." he informed him brightly before turning back to Casey. "And Cas, it's fine. If you don't want a weapon, we won't force it. You can just grab a helmet or something. Or a shield- shields are pretty cool, too."

~~~

Damascus could hear two sets of voices, the further he walked. One was in the general direction of the armory, like he expected, but the other was somewhere off in the distance.

If he were to guess, he would have assumed that the group had split off to look for him. A little knot of anxiety twisted inside him. He wanted to reassure whoever was looking for him that he was okay, but he couldn't exactly do that now- he wasn't supposed to know who any of them were.

Eventually, his thoughts were interrupted as they stopped in front of the doorway to the armory. He took a deep breath and turned to look over at Hades, wondering if he should explain what was going on or ask for advice.

With a little sigh, he realized that that probably wasn't the best idea. He didn't know if he could trust this man or not- he had only met him a handful of minutes ago, after all! Instead, he quickly prepared himself to act like he didn't know anyone, and walked in.

"Um... Hello." He tried for a wide smile, before realizing that it was probably unsettling in this situation.

"No, that sounds perfectly reasonable," Télos said. He stretched a little, the armor he was wearing clanking together when he did so. "Most of us are long range fighters - we can fight close if we want, but the gods and their chosen like using their powers instead of technical weapons. Hero's a bit of an exception, and so am I. Zalio doesn't mind fighting up close, but he's also pretty good with long distance. And then Lexal, if you couldn't tell, likes a combination of both. Aleks is really attached to his sword, while Lex gets a kick out of being able to summon gold."


After hearing Casey's gasp, Zalio couldn't help but give a traitorous yawn. He didn't want to, but his body was stubborn - it had its little quirks thanks to what he had been before he took the potion, and had tried its best to translate them over to the body of a player.

"Thanks for letting me know," he said, before finding a place to sit down and go through the contents of his bag.


Lex was still in the middle of bickering with Aleks over the armor when the two newcomers arrived. The one that had already spoken felt strangely familiar, but the second one made Aleks and Lex both pause in their heated conversation. He was dressed in formal clothing - a black suit - with an odd silver tie pin that almost looked like it was in the shape of a skull. But that wasn't what made Lex have to stop Aleks from pulling out their sword.

It was the way that the man couldn't stop staring at them.

He quickly strode over. Aleks moved a hand back towards their sword, but Lex forced the hand to stop moving. Now in front of them, the man continued to stare down at their chest, his gaze slowly traveling up to their face after a minute passed.

"There's two of you," he said, "and one of you is supposed to be dead."

She filed away that information for later; Enide had no idea when it would come in handy, but it couldn't hurt. "I prefer not to fight," Enide said, as the sounds of the conversation in the armory grew again. The fox hesitated - had they been going in a circle? Still, she stopped just behind the hallway that she suspected led straight back to the armory, turning back and talking to the god. "It is often inconvenient and messy. The sword is merely a last line of defense. And people are surprisingly amenable to a blade held against their throat."

“That's definitely true,” Télos agreed with a nod. Enide was pretty impressive, if this conversation was anything to go off of. “I was on the sidelines for most of the Great War—well, sitting in a jail cell in protective custody, but close enough—so Hero would tell me stories of his battles whenever he came to visit. A lot of people would surrender when he put Iroas—that's his sword—up against their neck at the end of a long battle. Obviously the diplomatic bit didn't come into play much, especially since...”

He bit the inside of lip and fell silent, gaze dropping down to the ground. Sometimes it was easy to forget what had happened—forget how his entire world had changed in a single moment. Hero, Oracle and him were the only gods left. An entire civilization had been wiped out in an instant, and not a single thing was left to mark one of the greatest eras in Minecraftia's history.

Now that was interesting. Him being imprisoned - in the middle of a war, no less - suggested one of two things. Either he'd been ousted from whatever land his godliness held (Enide shuddered to think of what would have to be powerful enough to make that happen), or had been captured by the other side (also not a comfortable prospect). That he had visitors suggested the first option, but she couldn't quite be sure if Hero had sneaked into the prison cell or not. He didn't seem to want to talk about it, however, and Enide wasn't too interested in bringing it up. She didn't have enough reason to consider him a threat, and she was a bit more concerned by whoever had just made their way to the armory.

"Not to say that I particularly enjoy it either," Enide said, walking down the hallway. At the next intersection, she quickly darted to the right and peeked out from behind the wall. Sure enough, just up ahead, two strangers were at the entrance to the armory - a strange man in a hood and another man who smelled vaguely familiar. "To reach the point where a sword would be necessary, one must have been caught themselves up in dire straits indeed."

The fox felt the fur on the back of her neck stand up. Someone had followed her. Someone had followed them. She'd been too distracted by the conversation and looking at the obvious targets to notice. She spun around just in time to be caught up in the arms of a very familiar fox.

"Amaya?" Enide said, looking up at her sister-in-law with wide eyes.

"Enide!" Amaya said. "It's so nice to see you!"

Sevy's eyes widened a bit at the approach of the suited man, and the claim he had made on Lexal's behalf. He frowned and opened his mouth, but his gaze turned to the other man instead- the one with old-fashioned clothes and a broad (somewhat creepy) grin.

"Hey." he said, giving a little wave. He set the weapon down and tilted his head, inviting the man over awkwardly. "I'm Sevy, and this is Casey." he nodded at the other boy, and then glanced back at the man, chewing his lip.

Enide and Télos hadn't returned yet, and he was getting a bit anxious for Gordon. How far could a cat travel?

"Did you happen to- see a cat in the hall, by any chance?" He murmured to the man.

Damascus gave a long pause, and the tips of his ears flushed ever so slightly. What should he do? He didn't want Sevy to worry any more than he was, but he also couldn't tell him the truth just yet.

"I... I-" he gulped, and quickly shook his head, his cheeks growing redder at the lie. "No, I haven't, I'm sorry. Um- I'm Damacus. It's nice to meet you,"

He held out a hand, still looking immensely bothered.

"Oh, cool," Télos said, popping up behind the two. He had come to the same realization that Enide had reached about having returned to the armory, but decided it would be best to chat with the newcomer before telling Sevy that he had been unable to find the cat. "You found a friend."


Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Damascus growing uncomfortable after introducing himself to Sevy. He couldn't figure out why - though it seemed like it had something to do with a lie of some kind, if that hesitation was anything to go off.

But his main focus wasn't on those two, or on the two that had grown tense the moment he had approached the people he was standing in front of now. It was on the two souls sharing a body. How was that even possible? Shouldn't one soul have been rejected by now?

"How did you know that?" one of the souls hissed. The soul's owner wasn't the one who was supposed to be dead - that was the other. Though this one had something odd about it, but he couldn't put his finger on what no matter how long he stared at the little soul nestled beside the heart.

"I'm a death god," he said, giving them a warm smile. "Seeing souls and knowing if they're supposed to be dead or not is part of what I do-"

He paused when he noticed the two watching the conversation, and the other two involved in it, grow significantly more tense.

"Don't worry," he reassured them with a comforting smile. "I'm not going to kill you. I can just tell that kind of thing - I have no intentions of cutting your life short again."

Amaya looked over Enide's shoulder. "And who is this?" she said, warmth in her voice. Enide could almost see the sparkle in Amaya's eyes.

"This is Télos," Enide said. "And he just so happens to be a-"

But Amaya had already slipped away and walked up to the god. Of course. She was only lucky that this god wasn't particularly harmful.

"Aww," Amaya said, looking Télos up and down. "He's so cute!"

Télos hadn't been expecting that adjective from the newcomer, but he took it in stride. It wasn't meant to be offensive, and he wasn't Aleks - he didn't abhor compliments like that, no matter how strange they were.

It didn't mean that he wasn't a little confused - in fact, he was very confused. What about him looked cute? He was so used to people being afraid or nonchalant when they saw him that being called anything else didn't make much sense.

"Er, thanks?" he hesitantly replied.

Sevy shook Damascus' hand, picking up on how uncomfortable he was. He tried to come up with a good explanation- maybe it was how crowded the room was, or maybe people just made him nervous.

Whatever the case was, Sevy wanted to help relieve any tension that may have been caused by him. He smiled and stepped back a bit, giving the man space.

"It's nice to meet you. Don't worry about my cat- I'm just worried about him, but I'm sure he'll be okay. He can hold his own well enough."

Damascus cleared his throat and nodded, but only succeeded in looking more uncomfortable.

Casey had nodded a welcome to the man, but had wandered over to the other newcomer and Lexal.. The man was saying something about souls, but beside that, the most alarming to him was about cutting lives short.

"What do you mean, again?" He asked quietly, a fair amount of shock in his voice.

Amaya turned around and set her paws on Enide's shoulders. "And he sounds just like my son, too!" she said, beaming.

Enide smirked. "You show some remarkably similar sentiments about everyone else you meet," she said.

"I woke up in time to find out that my baby boy is already an adult," Amaya said, pouting. "You'd better believe I'm going to find as much joy in this parenting thing as I possibly can."

"All perfectly reasonable," Enide said, stepping back and glancing around the corner. "But now might not possibly be the best time." She turned her gaze to the god. "Télos, what is your opinion? Should we be at all concerned with these strangers, assuming that they are strangers to you?"

Hades faltered, realizing that what he had said had been misinterpreted. "I didn't cut it short the first time," he hurriedly clarified, face gaining a slight blush as he rushed to avoid a misunderstanding. "I just meant that even though one of them is supposed to be dead, I wasn't going to do anything about it. It's not part of my job, and I don't even have the tools to reap souls."

Now thoroughly flustered, Hades decided that the best thing to do was try to make himself look as least intimidating as possible. Suddenly remembering a charm that Hecate had given him only a few months ago, he reached up to his tie pin and gave it a little tap.

It just took a little bit of thought for the outfit change to occur. The suit was replaced with a black leather jacket, black shirt, dark pants, and tall black boots. The tie pin became a black choker, and its pin became a silver skull necklace.

The occupants of the room stared.

"I just came from a meeting," he clarified, "and I really don't like wearing suits."


Télos followed her gaze, ignoring the comments that Amaya had made in order to focus on analyzing the newcomers. "I don't recognize either one of them," he admitted, "so I can't say much about what they're capable of."

He watched them for another moment.

"The one who just had a magical change in outfit feels powerful, but the other one does, too, in a different way. They're both kind of..." He struggled for the right word. "...familiar, if that makes any sense? The first one feels familiar in a more general way, while the second one just seems straight out like we've met before, even though I don't recognize him."

He shrugged.

"But that's just a gut feeling, so I don't know how much stock you can put into that," he added.