The Children // ASSASSINS CREED ODYSSEY // DEIMOS

C9: The Root

Eos looked down at Chrysis.

This woman was the closest thing she'd ever had to a mater and, looking at her now, she felt nothing. She thought that, despite everything, she'd feel a little sad, maybe even pity her but, she didn't. If anything, it was more like a relief. Like breaking apart from something. The root of her life, now plucked and torn and broken and ungrowable.

It was so freeing – except, it had let something else free too.

"Eos" Kassandra said quietly – she still didn't understand. She had a feeling of what Eos might mean, of the words she'd said to Chrysis but...

Eos took a deep breath and turned her head slightly, she shrugged a shoulder,

"I did something terrible. Really, really terrible" her voice got quieter "and I don't regret it" Eos swallowed back the lump in her throat, "not in that moment... but I... I wish I hadn't had to...but" Eos sighed, "I did and..." Eos looked back at Chrysis. It wasn't that Eos had forgiven herself for it. She didn't know if she could.

Choice. Control. It was something Eos had never had until that moment. Not really. She'd never had a choice. She'd always been too scared... too much of a coward...

And in that moment, she'd taken that choice she had and done something unspeakable... something she was sure she hadn't even been punished for yet...

"What did you do" Kassandra asked, Eos shook her head,

"I can't...", she almost laughed "I can't tell you". It didn't matter anyway. It was done. It had happened. Nothing was going to change that. Nothing was going to undo it. Nothing would bring him back.

"Show me" Kassandra said after a moment. Eos turned around confused but, then... the spear? Kassandra was holding it out to her.

"What" Eos took a step back,

"I don't know how it works but..." Kassandra shrugged, she took a step forward "It might" - it had only showed her moments before, of her family, her own blood but, Kassandra felt the want to try it, the spear was calling for it.

"Kassandra, I don't..." Eos put her hands up, "I don't want to...".

"Help me understand Eos. Help me understand what they did to you". Eos shook her head,

"I did this to me Kassandra. Not them. Not Chrysis. Me. If I'd just let them..." Eos put her hands on her head, trying to stop them from shaking.

There had been so much pain afterwards; she'd never had the chance to mourn. Then, when she was healed, she spent her time experiencing a world she'd never known; the sight of it all making her realise what it was she had to do. She had to show them, the others - had to show them that the choice... that the control over their lives that they always wanted... it was right there, just beyond their grasp.

Then, she'd been stupid and gone to Attika. The new found thoughts making her overlook the obvious; making her ignore all the signs that Laelaps had given her. She should never have left that little hut... She should have never locked him inside but, she'd seen Deimos. He'd been just metres away from her when she'd felt someone grab on to the back of her head and smash it against the marble – no wonder she hadn't seen Kallinos – all she'd remembered after that was the heat of the volcano.

But, all that pain, it made it so the pain of what she did got left behind – like she was running away from it.

Maybe this was her punishment.

The Gods had given her a taste of a world she'd always wanted – only for it to be torn away by the only world she knew.

"If you hold it in. You'll never accept it. It'll never be real" Kassandra found herself saying, she held the spear out more,