Chapter Text
Sometimes it’s hard for her to remember a time before her new life. The sunny skies, and gentle waves of Olympus swept away the edges of her memories.
She knew that in one life she was someone else, a good daughter with two loving parents in a stable household. She was an older sister, and a friend. Her life had been good, and easy.
But that life and that girl was gone. Now she was Eliana of Olympus.
Originally a resident of concrete filled suburbs she now delighted in experiencing island life. Her days were filled with exploring reefs and sunbathing under a bright sun. She knew all the names of the plants and animals in the forest, which berries and fruit were safe to eat, how to avoid poisonous animals, and the names of the countless stars that filled the canvas of the night sky.
The few times she ever paused and let herself be caught up in the pool of melancholy that filled her heart her old life would come seeping back, suffocating her and driving the newfound happiness far away. So she learned endlessly, asked questions and explored.
And if in her search for adventure she created goat stampedes, or set off a few explosions, that was no concern but her own.
Besides her new mother always smiled and laughed at her antics.
“That’s my Elia,” She’d say with gentle amusement when the villagers complained about her latest adventure into the forest that had ended in a small fire and the destruction of the old marble fountain in town, “My little light, is too curious for her own good.”
Elia loved her mother. That was probably the only thing she held with certainty in this new life.
In a way her mother was right she was curious but only because she had memories of staring down at the tops of fluffy clouds through a small oval window an airplane, and watching thousands of loud humming cars traverse black tar roads. She knew to question simply because she knew there was always more to the world.
Fortunately Olympus was a good place to explore. It was a small island in the New World, a place she learned was the second half of a region of the ocean called the Grand Line. It was sheltered though, surrounded by sea-kings, whirlpools and constant storms that it was near impossible to contact the rest of the world.
Most of her knowledge of the sea around them came from books centuries old, or washed up from the occasional shipwreck.
Despite its isolationist ways it was a good place to live. Having grown up unchanged by the lack of visitors, everyone on the island knew each other by name. And that tight knit community meant she could safely roam the forests and coves to her heart’s content, observing the unique flora and fauna that lived in harmony with the people.
Today was another day for adventure. Her light and airy sun dress brushed against her ankles as she flew through the streets of the town. Elia laughed waving her arms in greeting as she passed by her neighbors who looked at her with varying degrees of fondness and annoyance.
Her sandals smacked lightly upon the white stone of the road, and a breeze swirled through the air cooling the whole town to a nice warm temperature instead of it’s typical scorching summer heat.
She stopped breathless, at a little bakery off the road. The sign above the well worn door bore the image of a majestic golden ram. It’s fleece weathered with time was peeling off in small golden flecks, a few patches left on its belly were the only hint of its old shimmering glory.
“Where are you off to today little Elia?” Della the owner of the Golden Fleece, smiled knowingly as she rung up her purchases.
“I’m going to see the ruins,” she beamed in answer bouncing up and down in her excitement. “Mom said that in old days it used to be a huge kingdom blessed by the gods.”
Della laughed, shaking silvery threads of hair out of its loosely tied bun. The wrinkles on her face deepened with the wide smile on her lips, “Your mother is a very smart lady. Most of the young’uns these day think the gods are just stories.” Della scoffed disdainfully at the very idea.
“You mean the gods are real?” She asked.
Many people living in Olympus spoke of and worshiped gods through temple visits and holidays, but they were distant figures held more as myths and legends than reality. The possibility of their actual existence was something that defied even her knowledge from another world.
“Of course they are!” Della exclaimed slamming a fist down on to the counter, face fixed in a righteous scowl, “Olympus used to be the home of the gods, before they left this earth for the heavens above. They lived here in harmony with our ancestors, blessing them with unimaginable wealth and power.”
Della looked around cautiously before leaning forward. She was close enough, that Elia could feel the heat of the older woman’s breath against her ear.
“Some say that the gods fell in love with humans and that divine blood still runs through some of us today.” Della whispered, winking at her conspiratorially as she drew away.
“That sounds like a fairy tale Della.”
Della laughed, “Cheeky little thing. Just because it sounds like a story, doesn’t mean it’s not true.”
“I don’t know.” She tilted her head in a show of considering thought. “Seems pretty hard to prove.”
“Is it though?” Della arched a brow lips twitching in a faint smile, “Hasn’t your mother ever told you stories about the sun empress.”
Interest piqued, she shook her head.
“In the old days before Olympus this land was the great kingdom of Takamagahara." Della said, "It was a prosperous kingdom led by empresses and emperors who were said to have the blood of Amaterasu Queen of the Old Gods running through their veins.” The older woman rested her elbows against the counters pushing back her sleeves to reveal sun tanned arms, with the very beginning of the hints of wrinkles looking like cracks in a desert plane. "You're mother's family was actually the very last of those that worshipped Amaterasu."
Her eyes widened. Her mother had never mentioned such a thing before. In this life Elia's only family was her mother. She didn’t know her father nor did she have any siblings. She missed her old family, the memories of warm hugs and loud laughs from her father, and the jokes she shared with her brother.
It was harder to remember her old mother. The new one in this life was warm and friendly, kind and loving. She knew her mother before had been a wonderful woman, driven and hardworking but despite her best efforts those memories began to dwindle blending seamlessly into the memories with her new one.
Her current mother worked as a weaver, a taxing job that afforded them a small house on the edge of town. They weren’t exactly poor, but she was pretty sure they weren’t living comfortably enough to be related to the Gods themselves.
“You better not be pulling my leg Della.” She scowled causing the old baker to let out a barking laugh.
“Rararara, what do I know little one." Della laughed loudly leaning down to ruffle her hair, "I’m just a crazy old woman.” She plopped a brown paper bag down on the counter
“Now don’t you have some ruins to explore
She beamed reaching out for the bag of pastries. “Thanks Della!” She called out waving goodbye as she left the store. Following a familiar path she turned down an alley to her left and then made a right knocking upon a small wooden black door along the side of that road. Above her head, lines filled with drying laundry fluttered above her head like playful butterflies in the wind.
The door opened with a slow creak to reveal a pale looking boy still blinking the sleep from his eyes. He was dressed in a too large shirt with a hole in it at his left shoulder that she knew he sometimes played with when he was nervous. His brown eyes were accentuated by the dark bags underneath them, but they brightened a little when he caught sight of her.
She beamed at her friend.
“Good Morning Zag!” She chirped.
“Morning Elia.” Zag replied tiredly with a small smile of his own.
“You ready for another adventure?”
“I guess.” Zag stepped outside of the house closing the door softly behind them, “Mother’s asleep right now, but I left her a note.”
“Alright!” She cheered grabbing her friend’s hand and pumping the other in the air, “Let’s go!”
The two of them ran through the town not stopping when the houses and roads transitioned into tall towering trees and dirt.
Occasionally she glanced behind at Zag who always gave her a small smile in response. By now he knew better than to ask where the two of them were going.
As a child she found her desire for adventure and strange habits had an unfortunate tendency of driving other children away. Like the time that she’d managed to anger every chicken on the island causing them to follow her through the village streets in an angry stampede of loud clucks and white feathers. After that event and others like it the other children avoided her and usually left her alone.
Everyone that is, except for Zag.
Many years ago Zag’s father had used his Auxil to terrorize the island.
An Auxil was something unique to this life and something only Olympians could possess.
Auxils came in two stages. The first was a passive boost of a person’s physical body. It was pretty straight forward heightening things such as stamina, strength, speed far beyond the limits of a normal human being. It was such a common thing on Olympus that no one batted and eye when the carpenter in the main square had picked up an entire cart one handed to replace one of the wooden wheels.
The second stage of an Auxil was far more rare and something only a handful of Olympians unlocked each generation. Unlike the first stage this part of an Auxil was completely unique to a person and could literally be anything from flight to talking to animals.
Zag’s father had been one of the few who had unlocked the second stage of his Auxil but the power it gave him corrupted his mind twisting it until he tried to seize a title as the island king. His grab for power had led to many deaths before he had been subdued. It was the darkest tragedy in the recent history of Olympus.
Zag’s father had died many years ago, but the villagers still feared what Zag could become, and treated him as if he was the Devil himself..
That had never really made sense to Elia, who’s combined mental age was near 30. Looking at Zag she could only see the sweet shy boy that rarely held a grudge and wanted the best for everyone.
Finally arriving at their destination she let herself catch her breath an take in the view. The ruins of the old kingdom of Takamagahara sat upon the top of a cliff. It was on the east side of the island while the village of Olympus sat to the west closer to the only cove on the island. In comparison to the small houses of the village, Takamagahara was grand.
It was laid out like the cities from her memory with incredibly wide stone roads and neatly ordered rows of buildings.
“It’s amazing.” She whispered in awe bounding forward to the very first archway, hands tracing over the faded carvings of a dragon etched into the stone.
Behind her Zag stared upon it in awe, “It’s so big.” He said breathlessly moving to stand beside her.
“I know right!” Elia continued forward gaping at the huge multi storied buildings. Their white walls that once must have made the city shine, were cracked and overgrown with vines, but were still no less imposing.
“Come on lets go check out the castle. Last one there is a rotten egg!” She whooped taking off running.
“What!? Elia wait up!”
The two raced through the ruins, speed and agility far beyond the average human let them clear fallen obstacles in a single jump.
She used her hands to vault over a particularly large chunk of the castle’s broken wall. Planting on the other side she raised her hands in victory “I win!”
Zag landed besides her in a crouch. “You cheated.” He said plainly, shooting her an annoyed look.
“All’s fair in love and war..” Elia singsonged the phrase from her old life as she walked into the castle.
The inside of the building was huge. Shattered chunks of stone littered across the floor, and most of the walls were cracked and filled with holes, but the intricate veins of gold that ran through the white stone of the high arching ceilings were unlike anything she’d ever seen in this life.
Passing by a column she trailed her fingers over the carving of the large mythic creatures engraved around it’s base. She was particularly enamored, by the image of a large Fox that towered protectively over a human warrior. Unlike a typical fox this creature sported multiple tails that furled out behind it elegantly in the cold stone.
“Elia come look at this.”
She made her way over towards the section of the wall that Zag had found himself by. The wall here was different, the marble transitioning from white to a dark midnight blue that almost looked black from a certain angle.
Upon the darker stone sat curving symbols that were similar to pictographs. Her eyes narrowed, startling slightly when the symbols shifted until they began to form more recognizable words.
“What language is that?” She asked Zag who was squinting at the stone.
“I don’t know.”
His lips moved silently reading the words aloud under his breath. Elia turned back to the stone straining her own eyes to read.
“It’s a story.”
She turned towards Zag bewildered by his observation.
“About what?”
“About some Empress of this kingdom 800 years ago. Empress Suiko, daughter of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, united the warring kingdoms of the gods, Ayakashi, and humans on this island to create the kingdom of Takamagahara using the power of an ancient weapon.” Zag read
The letters swam even more until Elia was able to read the same story Zag had just recounted.
“What weapon?” She asked as the words started to clear into more understandable sentences.
“All it says is that it was called Solaris and that Suiko hid the weapon after the war,” Zag pointed to a section of squiggly writing.
She followed his finger to the line and read it for herself.
“It says she hid it in the realm of the gods.” Elia read out loud.
Zag hummed before freezing eyes widening in a delighted sort of surprise.
“Elia, look here!” her friend reached up to touch his hand to the stone, “It says the gods rewarded her for her achievements and gave her gifts of unimaginable power, blessing the people that lived in her land. Do you think that’s where Auxils came from?”
Just like Della’s story Elia observed biting her lip at the uncanny resemblance.
“I wish that we could read all of this some of it still looks like gibberish, Hey Elia, you okay?” Zag’s concern snapped her out of her thoughts.
“Just fine Zag!” She chirped, “C’mon let’s keep exploring.”
-o-
“Do you ever wonder what’s out there?” She kicked her legs back in forth staring out across the sea, stained orange and red by the setting sun.
Besides her Zag was eating the honey bun she’d bought from The Golden Fleece. The two of them had managed to climb to the second floor of the ruined castle, the walls of which had long since crumbled, leaving behind a view that overlooked the entire cliff side.
“I guess.” He shrugged, “Never really thought about it.”
“Really? But don’t you want to explore? See what’s beyond just this tiny little island.”
“Well… It might be nice to get to the leave the village.” The melancholic look on Zag’s face broke her heart.
She loved the village, the people there had been kind to her, had given her home, but she couldn’t forgive them for how they treated her best friend. No child ever deserved to be shunned for forces outside their control.
She jumped to her feet, “Then we’ll do it.”
She grinned at the bewildered look on Zag’s face.
“We’ll leave this island when were older. See everything on this sea! I’ve always wanted to know if the stories I’d read were true.” Elia announced proudly, anticipation making her smile grow wider.
“B-but how would- the village would never let us leave!”
She puffed out her cheeks indignantly, “Of course they won’t, but that doesn’t matter I’ll do it anyway.”
“Pfff-hahaha!”
Much to her shock Zag dissolved into laughter. Clutching at his side he continued to laugh the smile brightening his usually gloomy face.
“Gods, Zag! I’m being serious. They’re not the boss of me!”
Zag wiped away at the tear coming out of the corner of his eye, “Of course Princess.” He teased causing her to scowl. “And what happens if they ignore your orders.”
“Than you’ll save me! Right hero?” She said back with the same teasing tone.
“Yeah, I would.” The seriousness in the statement startled her, and she glanced back at her friend’s face. Zag’s eyes were filled with an unreadable emotion, and he looked at her with a strangely content smile, like there was no where else he’d rather be than by her side.
She felt her cheeks grow warm, and her eyes started to burn as the genuine feeling of gratitude she had towards her friend grew even stronger. Sitting back down she wrapped her arms around him.
“Elia?”
She ignored the question in his voice sniffling into his shoulder, “You’re the best friend ever.” Her voice wavered as she tightened their hug. Zag’s arms lifted up slowly to hug back.
“So are you.” He whispered back.
“I don’t care what anyone in the village says. Zagreus Angelis is the best-est coolest, person ever and nothing could ever change that.”
She declared stubbornly sniffling back at tears. Part of her that had reached an age that tears were rare was embarrassed by the emotional breakdown, but the six year old she was now just sniffled even louder.
Zag tightened the hug further burying his head into her shoulder. The two of them sat there long after the sun had set. Lost in their own world, filled with dreams of adventure and the sight of the open ocean that’d they’d face together.