Work Text:
He wakes in his cot on the borders of Okhema, and everything is wrong.
"Your highness?" Krateros peaks his head into the tent. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Mydeimos calls back. He pushes himself upright and twists his legs off the side of his cot. His hands shake when he holds them in front of his face. It feels as if everything has shifted to the left; as if something in the world has been shaken out of place.
"If you are nervous for today's meeting…"
"I'm alright." Mydeimos repeats. He clenches his hand into a fist; it still won't stop shaking. Mydei draws in a shaky breath. Once, then twice. He lowers his fist and raises his head. Something terribly important is missing. "I will be ready in a few."
That feeling of wrongness doesn't go away entirely over the next hour, but it does fade into something a bit more bearable. Mydei rubs the heel of his palm against his sternum when he finally leaves his tent. There's a vice on his heart and a dull ache without a source. He draws in a calming breath, steeling himself. Today is very much not the day to be worrying about such trivial things.
The representative that Okhema has sent to meet him is a young man with gray hair and a baseball bat held loosely at his side. He stands lazily in the clearing, leaning against the sheer stone cliff. Krateros is the only one who's followed Mydei to the rendezvous point, and even the old fighter stays behind, just a short distance away.
The gray-haired man perks up when he spots Mydei. He detaches himself from the stone wall and dips into a short bow. It's too short of a bow to be suitable for royalty, but Mydei has never felt like a prince, and this man doesn't seem to be someone from noble origins either.
"I am Caelus." The gray-haired man introduces. "I don't know if you've heard of me."
Mydei's eyes twist over Caelus's figure. Mydei has heard of him; Caelus's deeds are well-known, and have been hailed even far beyond the walls of Okhema. For him to have gained the title of Deliverer… Mydei blinks. All of a sudden he feels sick. It feels as if the title of Deliverer does not belong to Caelus, even though Mydei does not know anyone else with that title.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." He says anyway. That sick feeling of wrongness rears its head again. It turns around in Mydei's chest like a restless animal, jabbing its paws into the soft flash of Mydei's lungs.
Caelus squints at the prince before blinking, and his expression smooths out into something far more neutral. "It's a pleasure to meet you too."
"I'm sure the Goldweaver sent you." Mydei continues stiffly.
Caelus's expression twists into a wry smile. "Of course she did." He pulls his shoulders back. "I'm sure you and her have already communicated through your own messengers." He pulls out a stack of papers from thin air and offers them to Mydei.
"Treaty terms, I take?" Mydei takes the papers. His shoulders are tense; he can't help it. Nearly everything about Caelus is off, from the way the other man holds himself to the way he smiles.
Caelus laughs. "Yup." He raises his hands in the universal symbol of surrender. "Just a quick reminder that I'm just the messenger, so if there's anything you're unhappy with, don't go complaining to me."
Mydei narrows his eyes. "Do you think so little of my people and I?" Mydei finds himself missing- someone? all of a sudden. He ignores that jab of pain and looks down to flip through the papers. It would be nice, if whoever the Goldweaver had sent hadn't come with all the Okheman Prejudices.
"Of course not." Caelus snorts, jolting Mydei out of his thoughts. "In fact, I quite respect you." He smiles as he says this, genuinely this time. "It's just that, well, this is a tense time for everyone." Caelus shrugs. "I wouldn't blame you for lashing out, even if it would be a bit inconvenient."
Mydei stares at Caelus, unsettled. Caelus keeps on smiling. Mydei can't stand this interaction. Everything about Caelus feels like a facade in Mydeimos' eyes. Mydei can't tell if it's his instinct talking, or the wrongfootedness that has been plaguing him the entire day.
"You can read over Aglaea's terms while we travel." Caelus continues. "I I'm just here to deliver a message and take you to Okhema."
Mydei narrows his eyes. "You convinced the Goldweaver to listen to our terms."
Caelus shrugs. "She just wants to keep her own people safe, so I vouched for you guys." He tips his head to the side, glancing past Mydei towards Krateros. "I take it you guys have all already started packing up, right?"
Mydei sighs, and waves a hand towards Krateros. Krateros dips his head and scurries off. They hadn't fully packed, only basic level of emergency packs. But with Castrum Kremnos fully gone and the black tide on their tails like this, the only option they have left is to take Caelus's word and travel to Okhema.
"You're making a gamble," Mydei says, "Allowing us sanctuary before our terms have fully been hashed out."
Caelus raises his palms up in a 'what-do-I-know' gesture. "I don't do politics, man. So long as your people are safe and you join up on the Flamechase like you promised I honestly couldn't care less."
Mydei does end up following Caelus in the end. His people are restless, but more importantly, they are tired. Mydei doesn't know how much longer they can last out in the wilderness like this.
The Lady Goldweaver meets them at Okhema's gates. Caelus easily ducks out with Krateros to show Mydei's people to their lodgings, leaving Mydei behind to brave the political scene of Okhema by himself.
By the end of the day, Mydei is drained; he hasn't been this tired from socialization since the days after his father passed. When he makes it back to his quarters he collapses onto his bed immediately, not even bothering to change clothes.
Now that he's alone like this, that sense of wrongness he'd been feeling earlier in the day rears its head again. He's tired. He shouldn't be alone. There's no one else in this city for him.
Caelus shouldn't have been the one to meet with Mydei at the border. The entire interaction should not have been this peaceful. There's someone missing from Okhema's ranks, and no matter how hard Mydei looks, he can't find them.
Mydei rubs the heels of his palms against his eyes. He's too tired for this. His head hurts just as much as his heart.
When he finally passes out, it is to vague flickering dreams of someone like the sun.
Caelus shows up at Mydei's door the next afternoon. Mydei stares blankly at Caelus, and Caelus offers up a little wave.
"I figured I'd guide you around Okhema." He chirps. "Do a little bonding session, from one outlander to another."
Mydei looks tiredly down at Caelus. Caelus smiles far too brightly. Mydei still has a lingering headache. There's no way Caelus ca n pick up on it; years of practice have made Mydei a deft hand at masking.
"Sure, why not." Mydei says anyway, because Caelus had been the one to vouch for him to begin with, and Mydei can't afford Caelus's ire. Mydei didn't think it'd be possible, but Caelus brightens up even more.
"I'll show you around Marmoreal market first." Caelus says, hopping off of Mydei's front steps. "It's where all the important stuff is."
Mydei offers a small hum. He dips off to the side to grab a few things- his money pouch, among other things- and follows Caelus out into the streets.
Marmoreal Market is abustle with activity. Caelus yaps on and on with every shop they pass by. Mydei keeps an out for the necessities- the fruit and veg stand, the butcher's, the smithy- while Caelus wanders off to ramble on an antique shop.
He and Caelus are similar, in that sense, Mydei absently muses. Both are prone to being distracted by everything in their path.
Mydei blinks. That thought fades away just as soon as it'd appeared. Mydei freezes in his steps. Caelus continues yapping, trailing ahead of Mydei.
Mydei glances around Marmoreal Market. That feeling from yesterday makes itself known again. Mydei's heart hurts; there is a chill in his bones and a ghost by his side. The antique shop has a white-haired man haggling over pottery; Mydei blinks, and the man disappears. The fruit stand has that same man bending over the produce; he's glancing over his own shoulder to smile at Mydei. That image, too, quickly fades.
"Mydei?" Caelus glances over his own shoulder at Mydei. There's a white-haired man doing the same in Mydeimos' eye; the Deliverer smiles like the sun. There are two Deliverers in front of Mydei, and only one of them is Mydei's.
This is wrong. The Deliverer who should be guiding him around Okhema does not have gray hair and golden eyes. The Deliverer Mydei knows does not wield a bat but a sword. Mydeimos looks at Caelus, and it feels like looking at a discolored image. The Deliverer's actions overlay Caelus', and it feels like looking at a ghost. Mydei suddenly feels like throwing up again. It's as if the ground has shifted beneath him, leaving him wrongfooted.
He stares at Caelus, searching. He does not find the person he is looking for. Caelus is not the Deliverer that Mydei had known and loved, even as Caelus plays the Deliverer's part.
"Who are you?" Mydei asks. His voice trembles with an emotion he does not wish to name. "You're not the Deliverer."
Caelus holds Mydei's gaze. Mydei's eyes burn, with tears, perhaps. There's something akin to grief, bubbling up in his chest, just beneath that unshakeable sense of wrongness. Mydei misses the Deliverer so badly, all of a sudden. There's a gaping hole in the space beside Mydei that can not be filled- will never be filled.
"Where is he?" Mydei chokes out. "What did he do?"
"Oh, Mydeimos." Caelus's expression turns pitying. "I'm so sorry."