The Fates (Book II)

8.1 - Of Myth and Matter

Let's begin Episode 8 in Rider's camp :)

P.S. To all my dear #Cloder fans - I promise that the fated soulmates will cross paths again before Book II is over!! (Their reunion just has to follow the flow of the story!) Sooo, when exactly? ... Patience is a virtue, guess we'll have to wait and see ;)

EPISODE 8 - CHANCE

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Scene 1: Of Myth and Matter

2020 B.C.

"Are you going to kill someone?"

Rider paused in his shaving, blade poised midway down the firm ridge of his jaw, which he'd clenched upon hearing the words. He did not turn to face his wife when he replied to her, nor did his voice turn up into a question. He resumed his routine task. "Why do you ask."

Lachesis shivered, wondering if he could see her in his makeshift mirror, the reflective metal shard he always used to shave. Even if he could see her, she wasn't sure if he would bother to look. He had been kind to her of late, but mere kindness was a far cry from what she craved.

In any case, she realized soon enough, she now had to explain the blatant question she had so impulsively asked. "It just seems that-that you've a very serious mission to pursue in Argos. I still don't know what it might be, but I have seen... a certain darkness in your eyes, lately. Especially when you speak of your past."

"Do you want me to stop speaking of it, then?"

"Oh, no, I..." she denied on the instant, making no attempt to hide just how much she loved learning as much as she possibly could about her husband, "...I want to hear everything."

Rider set aside his razor as he finished grooming. "If you are set on staying by my side," he spoke the words, though not unkind, as if toward a burden rather than a bride, "then you deserve to hear as much as I can tell. And once I've told it all, then maybe you will know."

Lachesis tilted her head. "Know what?"

His gaze was deep, downright ablaze with darkness when he answered. "Whether I am out to kill."

2030 B.C.

"The beast cannot be killed. Don't say I didn't warn you, boy."

"I am the son of Zeus," Perseus proudly asserted, chin held high as he faced the king of the isle. "No beast is safe from my wrath or my strength. Least of all the beast who sits upon the throne of Seriphos."

King Polydectes huffed a haughty chortle through his nose. "You still believe those myths? The web of lies on which your life was built? I see your mother raised you in her own deluded image. Crazy bitch."

Perseus seethed, but a host of palace guards restrained his limbs as he lunged forward toward the king. "How dare you, royal ass!-"

"Calm yourself, child," the ever-condescending king reproached. "I understand you're still enraged, that I took your whore mother away from you, so many years ago. That neither you nor your alleged father Zeus - nor your other father figure, my pathetic brother - had any power to stop me, or to save her."

"My mortal father is a greater man than you could ever be," Perseus contended in Dictys's defense. "The gods favor the pure of heart and virtuous of soul. That is the measure of a man's true worth. Not empty power over other men on earth. Dictys protected my mother for as long as he was able, and now, today - I will save her."