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Thanatos arrives to the dying of embers. The surface air is thick with ash, the sun a red smudge in the haze.
He finds them, as he always does. The dying gasps of the living as they struggle to breathe. This particular group appears to be a family. Their ox is slumped, motionless, still tethered to a caravan. Thanatos can surmise they were trying to flee. He's not sure what is worse: death by burning, or asphyxiation, but he supposes it matters not in the end.
He frees the souls from their struggling flesh, prepares to teleport to the Styx---
There is a shift.
Something is… different. Something is wrong. A familiar sensation, a familiar presence, brushes against his psyche. It is too far to investigate with ease, but still close enough to register within him. He's not sure how far his consciousness extends when he is in his corporeal form: a fair distance, but not country-sized. If it was death he sensed, then perhaps he truly could pinpoint it no matter the distance.
However it is not death he senses, but life. A life that should be nowhere near this part of Greece, so far inland.
He thinks (hopes) he must be mistaken, but a flash of light resigns him to his realization.
"Oh, hey there, boss!" Hermes begins, tone oddly more urgent than usual. "Y'know, any other time I'd try a little joke, 'fancy meeting you here' and all that, but I feel like circumstances are anything but coincidental, and not because of these fine shades you're escorting. Hi, hello, by the way," Hermes nods to the shades. "I'll be taking over for our dear brooding friend here. I'll take this lot to Charon, boss; I think you know you're needed elsewhere."
Ice fills Thanatos' chest. He is gone half a second later in a flash of green light.
"Gee, thanks, Hermes!" the Olympian calls out into the air after him. "You're a real pal!"
The shades look between the god and their mortal shells uncomfortably.
"Chthonic gods," Hermes sighs, shaking his head. "Anyway I digress. You won't need those where you're going, trust me, flesh is such a hassle. Off we go!"
It won't be long until his brethren notice what's going on, but he hopes they're so caught up in their own revelry and madness that Thanatos can get to the prince first.
***
Thanatos is in, if he had to guess, the next forest over. He can feel Hermes for a moment, the distance equivalent to several mortal days if traveled by foot, before his presence presumably disappears into the Underworld.
The same fire that had taken the lives of the fleeing family must have ravaged through this forest first. The air is still smokey from the flames raging in the distance, but he supposes it would be breathable here now. The trees no longer smoke, and the earth is pale grey but not a single ember remains.
Well, no ember of natural origin.
Zagreus' feet flicker atop the ash. His back is to Thanatos, the red of his chiton vivid against the blackened forest.
"Zagreus," Thanatos near-whispers, gliding over to the prince. "How…"
Zagreus spins around, his own eyes incredulous.
"Than!" he exclaims, equal parts shocked and delighted. "What are you doing here?"
"I should be asking you the same question," Thanatos replies, eyes scanning for any sign of abnormality or injury. "How did you get this far from the Temple of Styx?"
Zagreus shifts slightly, unclipping an object from his belt. Thanatos realizes with a start that it is not a skull, and had Zagreus not drawn attention to it, he would not have registered that fact.
He instantly recognizes the shroud of his mother protecting the object, but he does not recognize the object in itself. It is oval, egg-like, in shape, imbued with ever-changing shades of indigo and turquoise. Gold details the surface, patterned in an almost cage-like design to contain the inky hues.
Zagreus stares down at the object in his hand, his earlier delight shifting into solemn bemusement.
"I met your sister," Zagreus starts, and Thanatos stiffens. He certainly wasn't expecting that. "Well, one of them anyway. Atropos, interesting character, very hard to read. Must run in the family," Zagreus jokes half-heartedly, rubbing his other hand against the back of his neck.
Thanatos remains silent. Zagreus sighs, keeping his gaze on the strange possession in his palm.
"She told me she hated me for the longest time. Didn't quite know what to make of that, first meeting and all, but then she…" Zagreus flushes. "She thanked me, for being good to you. That was even more baffling. Gods know I've been awful to you, Than…"
Zagreus' thumb brushes over the swirling surface of his object.
"You remember that List of Minor Prophecies I'd pilfered from the Administrative Chamber?" Zagreus asks, finally looking up at Thanatos. The older god merely nods. "It seems your divine mother found a loophole in the prophecy regarding my birth, and your sisters were none too pleased with that fact. She brokered a deal with them for allowing the loophole to be exploited."
Thanatos raises a single pale eyebrow, and Zagreus gives him a half-hearted grin.
"Hades was to bear no living heir. As a stillborn, the prophecy was technically fulfilled. He bore a dead heir, not a living one."
Thanatos fights the urge to smile. He can just imagine his mother's calm face, patiently explaining this fact to his furious sisters.
"In return for allowing me to live, I would assist them in ensuring other prophecies of theirs would come to pass, complication-free."
Though Thanatos has no need for air, he takes a long, slow breath in through his nose. Nyx had ensured that Zagreus took on the list, but had done so without notifying him of his own connection to it. He pursued the prophecies initially out of good-faith and love for her, and then also out of love for those he connected with in the Underworld. He had not been desperate to complete the list for himself and his life-debt, no, he had been desperate to help others, and in turn, help the Fates.
His mother had shown his sisters that Zagreus had been worth saving. Thanatos no longer stops a smile from gracing his lips: Nyx truly was incredible.
"I finished the list," Zagreus continues, breaking Thanatos out of his warm thoughts, "And so she came to tell me I have been formally accepted by the Fates. Which, I hadn't really realized was not the case to begin with, but hey, better late than never I suppose."
Thanatos can't help it: he snorts at that, and Zagreus chuckles.
"Now for the crux of my long-winded tale," Zagreus announces. "In being accepted, formally and finally, by the Fates, I now have, formally and finally, a role for my godhood."
Thanatos jerks at that, eyes wide. "What?"
"I know, right? Surprise, surprise," Zagreus chuckles once more, this time nervously, one hand rubbing at his neck again. "Atropos invited me to go with her to Chaos' realm: apparently Nyx and Chaos were awaiting me there after our little chat."
"You just believed her?" Thanatos interjects, affronted.
"What else could I do, Than?" Zagreus asks, exasperated. "She's only just stopped hating me and I'd rather not be on the Fates bad side again, especially knowingly this time."
Thanatos groans and pinches the bridge of his nose.
"So off we went," Zagreus continues, unfazed. "It's a very unsettling feeling, I'll have you know, being teleported by a Fate. It feels much different from when you do it."
Thanatos continues rubbing at the top of his nose, deciding to remain silent once again.
"When we arrived, Nyx and Chaos were there, just as she said," Zagreus shoots a pointed look at Thanatos, "and Nyx was holding this."
Both men look to the object Zagreus still holds.
"It had been my keepsake, from Chaos," Zagreus says, voice growing soft. "Nyx had taken it from my collection, and she and Chaos made some… alterations."
Thanatos wonders if this conversation is what aging feels like to mortals.
"It is my blood that ties me to the Underworld," he murmurs, smoothing invisible lines over the object. "Or more specifically, the blood of the Styx. Nyx used the Styx to revive me, and so, we are part of each other."
Thanatos feels his feet touch the ground without his conscious decision to do so.
"This is called a Chaos Egg. It is not bound by any dimension. It has been filled with the blood from the Styx. I can roam the surface now, so long as I keep this part of the Styx with me."
Thanatos reaches out slowly, placing a hand on Zagreus' shoulder. Even with his feet on the ground, he is still taller than Zagreus, and the shorter man looks up at him.
"Is this really what you want, Zag?" he asks.
He suppresses the pain in his tone, but he cannot suppress the pain in his chest.
Zagreus blinks at him, and then offers him a reassuring smile.
"Want? Than, this is who I am now. I need to be able to roam the surface," Thanatos feels his eyebrows furrow, but Zagreus smiles. He uses his free hand to reach up and cup Thanatos', keeping it on his shoulder. "I'm the God of Rebirth, Than. This place… it… it called to me."
Thanatos freezes, registering Zagreus's words, taking it all in. He looks past Zagreus, to the blackened trees, then glances down. Sure enough, a small ring of vegetation is poking through the ash, its circumference just outside the flicker of Zagreus' feet.
Zagreus is a god, now. Zagreus has always been a god but he's… he's a god with a purpose now. A purpose on the surface and…
As though Zagreus can hear Thanatos' swirling and chaotic thoughts, he gives his hand a squeeze.
"I'm not going anywhere, Than," he says gently, locking gazes. "I'm just like you now, except, I feel when things need to be reborn instead of when they need to die. I'm not leaving y--not leaving the House," Zagreus affirms, cheeks turning pink. "I'm just going to be… doing my job. Gods, that sounds strange."
Zagreus laughs then, and maybe it's the shock, maybe it's the proximity, maybe it's both, but the sound makes Thanatos ache.
"I'll probably be seeing you more often as well," Zagreus adds with a grin. "Can't exactly bring things back to life if they aren't dead, now, can I?"
"There are different types of death," Thanatos whispers automatically. He wants to pull away, but Zagreus is still keeping his hand firmly pinned between his own hand and shoulder. "You may not see me at all."
"Well, I'll have to hope then, won't I?" Zagreus murmurs, eyes gentle.
He's close. Too close. Why hasn't he let go of his hand yet? Something is buzzing inside of Thanatos. Zagreus, he, he can't just say things like that and--
"I have to go," Thanatos says, forcefully pulling away. Zagreus frowns slightly. "Duty calls, as you know. I guess, as now you really know."
"Right," Zagreus replies, watching him intently. "I'll see you at the House?"
"Maybe," Thanatos says, and before he can help himself, adds: "Hopefully not just there."
The last thing Thanatos sees before warping away is Zagreus absolutely beaming.
Ah, he's really in trouble now.