Forgotten; Worshipped (Imported from Ao3)

9

Aaron looked at Thomas, who was glowing brighter and brighter by the minute and it began hurting his eyes the more he looked at him. Now the entire room was glowing brightly as he and Hercules continued packing his things. Curiously, Aaron walked over to the barred window to see if he could see the king or any sign of Alexander. He didn't have to look for too long to find dark clouds and lightning in the distance and the lightning hitting one spot on the ground a number of times. Aaron smiled, Alexander had always been a great distraction in every sense of the word. Aaron turned away from the window and went back to the bed to put a silk pillow, his favourite, into a bag, not noticing how behind him the clouds quickly disappeared.

"Ah, Hercules, I wanted to ask a favour of you," Aaron suddenly remembered and Hercules looked up at him from under the bed where Alexander had smuggled some books from the library to.

"Sure, go ahead," Hercules said and pushed himself back under the bed to look at more of the books.

"When I die," he paused and Hercules noticeably flinched and hit his head on the bed above him in surprise, "When I die I want you, and Thomas, I want you two to care for Alexander and I want you to make him happy. Make him the happiest creature of any realm and don't ever let him be unhappy if he doesn't need to be... He'll have to mourn me, but that is the only unhappiness I will allow for him. Do you understand, Hercules?"

"O-of course! I-... I'll never leave Alexander. And I'm sure Thomas won't either... But... you do know that if you lived in the gods' realm you'll be immortal, right?" Hercules tried but Aaron shook his head.

"I won't permanently live in the gods' realm, Hercules. When I'm out of here I'll keep my promise to Alexander. I'll build him a temple and gather a group of people to worship him. I will not be able to stay with him, which is why I'm asking you, and earlier Thomas, to stay with him for eternity because you have an eternity to stay with him... And I... I haven't..." Aaron sighed and crawled under the bed with Hercules, grabbing two books and pushing them from under the bed.

"It... doesn't have to be you to build the temple or stay in it..." Hercules tried again but Aaron just sighed and shook his head again.

"It's my promise, Hercules. Perhaps I could return to Alexander every once in a while, or he visits me... But I will have to stay more in this realm than in the other. It is not natural for me to live for that long..." Aaron spoke solemnly, "It's something I and Alexander have accepted a long time ago."

Hercules frowned but nodded in agreement. He didn't like the thought of Aaron dying one day, it was a horrid thought indeed but he told himself that it was bound to happen at some point. Aaron was a mortal human being, something in his life will end up ending his life, be it his natural lifespan and old age, or something even more out of his control. An accident, a murder, a god striking him with a curse. Really, anything could happen to him to kill him, and it was inevitable. Aaron did not want to be immortal it seemed, at least not if he was sure that Thomas and Hercules would care for Alexander like he would. But Hercules still found it unfair.

"I can't give him the eternity he deserves while keeping my promise..." Aaron muttered to himself, barely audible to Hercules' ears and Hercules looked at him with pity in his eyes. these words weren't meant to be heard by him, so Hercules didn't reply to them, but continued looking through the books, occasionally sneezing at the dust on some of them. Aaron crawled back out from under the bed and carried the books to the bags and neatly placed them inside, closing this bag as it was now full and would otherwise be too heavy to carry.

Aaron sighed again, looking at one of the books Alexander had stolen for him from a foreign country. It was in a language he hadn't ever heard before, but Alexander had taught him quickly all about the language, the culture and the country it came from. It was a lovely time when he learned all about it and he often imagined being in that country and living there, finally in peace. He smiled when he suddenly realized, he was so, so close to that. He was so close to being free. All it would take now was for Thomas to break the spell and break the walls for him to finally escape his golden cage. Then Hercules would make him invisible and Alexander would carry him to the realm of the gods to stay for as long as it took for people to forget about his existence. Then he would be able to finally make good on his promise to Alexander, build him the temple, get him worshipped again and help him regain his former form, self and status amongst the gods. There was nothing in life he wanted more, truly nothing more.