Helix

When You Battle Witches

24 AD

Blood flecked his face. The deep red staining his skin and clothes with its vibrancy. His dark hair and stubble cheeks were enough to give him a messy appearance as he struck again, broad shoulders and toned-hard muscle flexing and shifting with the effort. The target groaned in agony falling to the sandy ground while the black eyes of his prosecutor gazed impassively down at him.

"You are a disgrace to the legion!" To the onlookers, he barked orders, "Get this piece of shit out of my sight."

A fervent, "Yes sir." Left multiple mouthes at the same moment.

Turning away commander general Ynyr Kornel froze. His skin whitening so far as to make his gore-splattered appearance even more pronounced. "H-helix?"

"Hello, commander." Helix leaned against the wall of the closest building. "You look well."

The commander blinked, some color returning to his cheeks. "How did you get here? I saw you... change? I thought, well I thought you were gone."

"I was for a short bit. But here I am, finding my way back. I would like to discuss some things with you, privately if you have the time?"

Ynyr spun on his heel, voice rising to a booming, commanding, timber, "You are all dismissed. Take the rest of the day to yourselves. No one is to bother me for any reason until tomorrow."

The commander did not bother waiting to see his men's reactions before turning back to Helix. With a familiar tilt of his head, Ynyr wordlessly requested Helix walk with him.

Familiar sights, ranging from the smooth stone path to the commander's office door made joy jump in Helix's heart. Even while being played by Sal, he had still come to think of this place like home, the men of the legion as his brothers and Ynyr as a mentor. Everything was the same as before, yet it was different too. Helix could sense more details then he'd ever noticed before. From the simple barracks layout being easy to navigate and defend, to the smells of cooking food delicately floating past the commander's door.

Helix settled into the chair Ynyr suggested then let his instincts rise a bit to examine the room and the witch before him.

Ynyr's scent reminded him of frost and ash. It was thick from the commander's recent exercise. Helix noted how he felt no unsettling compulsion to cower like his senses had warned, with Cinix on their first meeting. Instead, he felt like a predator in the presence of an equal.

"Tell me what happened?" Ynyr poured himself, and Helix a measure of wine before taking his own seat.

Accepting the drink Helix briefly covered Ares changing him into a wolf, meeting Eslein, learning to change back into a man, and coming back to Aquileia. He left out a great many details: such as helping the witch woman kill the soldiers who had murdered her sister, his possible feelings for Eslein, and some parts of his interactions while in the Fate.

Ynyr listened his expression flickering from unreadable to surprised, and back again. When Helix reached the part about needing five hundred men in order to hunt and kill Zeus and Sal, the witch's expression became a mask of stone.

"So why did you come back here? Obviously not to reclaim your post."

"I need your help, commander. I need you to join me."

Ynyr's eyes narrowed, "I never thought you stupid. You are talking about an all-out war with a god and a seer. The most powerful of both. What you are talking about, it can't be done. Let alone with only five hundred mortals."