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Spear to his throat, Caelus wonders what, exactly, had gone wrong here.
"Who are you?" asks the figure, familiar in a way that makes Caelus want to shut his eyes. "What are you doing here?"
In this new Cycle, a handful of demigods had still been missing. Caelus had been traveling on an attempt to locate one of them, any of them, and in the process witnessing with his own eyes what Amphoreus had truly looked like before the Black Tide. Then, he'd gotten a tip on a potential location for the demigod of Georios, Terravox, and….
That had led him here, right to the end of Dan Heng's spear.
"It's me," Caelus says, arms raised to show he isn't reaching for a weapon. "Do you recognize me?"
Dan Heng isn't wearing the same clothing. His horns are the wrong color; they branch differently from his head, opaque like Caelus has never seen before. There's a tail, an actual physical real tail, snaking around his ankles. Cloud-Piercer is thinner, longer, the wrong color.
But, at the same time, his voice is the same. His face is the same. That stupid eyeliner he always chooses to wear every single morning without fail is still smudged under the same eye. He's still Dan Heng, but with no recognition in those golden eyes.
The point of the spear retreats from his throat somewhat. "You're… familiar," says Dan Heng. Those eyes (not golden, still the same gray, but the pupils are gold, Caelus notices) narrow, scanning his face, looking for something. Caelus isn't sure if he finds it. "I think I see you in my dreams sometimes."
The spear drops just as Caelus's heart does.
When the Cycle had reset, had Dan Heng made it out? Had he been trapped in the collapsing situation, pretending he wasn't scared as the world had dissolved around him?
Was he even speaking to Dan Heng right now, or had he found the demigod he was looking for?
"You see me in your dreams?"
"I don't sleep much," and the spear dissolves into thin air, "but when I do, I see you. Why do I see you in my dreams? Who are you?"
Deep breath. He doesn't remember. It isn't like they hadn't gone over the idea of this happening one day, after bad nightmares and rough meetings and everything in between. "My name is Caelus. I think we traveled together for a while."
"When I speak with the others, I am referred to as Terravox. What you're talking about is impossible, though. If we traveled together, I would remember you."
Ah. So then yes, he's found the person he was looking for, and at the same time so much more.
"It's… nice to meet you, then, Terravox." He can't stay still anymore, pivoting in place so he can pace more easily. "And as for the travel… it's hard to explain. I'm not sure you'd believe me. I don't even know if I know you, really. You might just look like a friend."
Terravox chuckles at that one, a huffy, breathy thing near what Caelus had heard in his dream on Penacony, a laugh that had stuck with him for the past year. "And yet, something in me tells me that is untrue. You don't treat me like someone who looks like a friend of yours."
"There's a lot to explain there, honestly." Caelus trails off, because how does he even start with this? Hey, every aspect of your life is a lie, your name was Dan Heng, you aren't from Amphoreus, you're trapped in an endless loop of repeating cycles, and I loved you will absolutely not land correctly. Caelus is all too familiar with what happens when he sticks his foot in his mouth and this is one of the cases where he'd really really like to be careful with what he says, thanks.
"I have a lot of time," says Terravox, deadpan. "I'd like to hear what you think."
And there's no way Caelus can resist that, can he? He's missed Dan Heng a completely reasonable amount in the past few weeks, thank you very much, he thinks he's entitled to wanting to sit down and talk with him for a while. (Honestly, he'd prefer if it was reversed, because Aeons above he's missed the way Dan Heng would explain things to him whenever he asked, or even if he didn't ask, or even if he didn't want to know, or just if he was excited to talk and hiding it badly, or… Okay, fine, he's just missed Dan Heng, okay?)
"Would you come back to Okhema with me, then?" he asks, low on hope that it would work. It had taken effort to find this place, hidden away from any of Amphoreus's major city-states. "It might be easier to talk there. The others know a lot more than I do."
That's not really the reason. If Terravox had mentioned the others earlier, he might have an easier time opening up with a familiar face around, because clearly he'd spoken to someone before.
Those golden eyes roam the area, and Caelus looks at it properly for the first time. There's a cave nearby that seems very… lived-in, which of course makes sense for a demigod that rules over earth, but it doesn't look like a temporary camp or anything similar. It looks like a home, like somewhere Terravox has been living, like even though he's been in contact with the others he's stayed far away in the wilderness.
"I've been here for a long time," says Terravox, already moving towards the cave, "just waiting, and I've never been quite sure what for. I simply knew I wasn't going to move until I found whatever it was that I was looking for, or until he found me." A bag near the entrance gets scooped up by clawed gauntlets, tossed over a shoulder like it was pre-prepared. "I think he's found me now."
Caelus just… stares at him. The dragon's lips curl into a small smile.
"Lead the way, mysterious traveler."
~-~-~
He's made no secret of the fact that he was sent to look for the missing demigod, and Terravox has looked at him no differently for it. The dragon had hummed, almost in agreement, like he'd been expecting this the whole time.
"This is not the first time they've tried," he'd said.
"But it's the first time you've agreed."
"Yes," said Terravox, and did not continue, eyes on the road ahead.
Caelus leads him through Okhema in the direction of the room they'd shared in the previous Cycle. It's still his, even if it feels empty with only one occupant. It's the easiest, quietest place to have a chat without the other Chrysos Heirs hovering nearby, and without any extra bathers in the area. It's one of the few private places Caelus currently has to himself.
The issue, first and foremost, is that it's on the far end of the city.
He's long been familiar with the way Dan Heng acts in a crowd. Okhema's hustle and bustle with Terravox is no exception.
The dragon is near skittish, if that word could ever be used to describe someone as stubborn as Dan Heng. Caelus notices the quiet sigh of relief once they exit the busy market, watching his shoulders slowly straighten back out.
"You okay?" he says quietly, and Terravox startles like he hadn't been expecting the sound.
"I am alright. Don't worry about me."
(And isn't that a familiar phrase in Dan Heng's voice. Caelus is familiar enough to know that pushing past that won't give him anything.)
The worst part of it all is that he can't stop seeing Dan Heng in everything. This was where they last walked together, where he said goodbye. This was where Dan Heng had held back Flame Reaver so Caelus and Phainon could go forwards. This was the hallway he'd run down to get back once Phainon had sent him away.
And, of course, this was the room they'd shared together.
Terravox sets his bag down on Dan Heng's old bed, the lounge right by the door. "This is yours?" he asks, eyes roaming the space.
"Yep," Caelus confirms. "This is my room when I'm here. I used to share it, but he's… not here anymore."
"That friend of yours? The one you believe I look like?
He's too goddamn perceptive. Caelus nods. "That was his bed, actually. He liked the library corner. Reading, just in general, actually. Any kind of information. Back home, he ran our Data Bank, the collection of all the knowledge we'd gathered in our travels."
"He really does sound quite familiar, then." Terravox opens his bag to show it's full of… papers. Books, scrolls, loose sheets, anything in between. "I had no wish to leave any of this behind. If he were still here, perhaps he'd still have a use for it."
They're all covered in handwriting; it's his handwriting, Caelus realizes. It isn't the Xianzhou script that Dan Heng still favors, but the weight of the lines and the slight slant to the Amphorean letters still scream his name in every way that matters. There are detailed sketches of flora and fauna, the artist inexperienced but eager, capturing details in rough strokes that resolve into clear images. Much of it is very distinctly foreign to Caelus.
If he closes his eyes, he can pretend he's still three months back in time, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Dan Heng, poring over his newest notes on Amphorean culture.
"These are really good," says Caelus, just to break the silence. "You drew all of these yourself?"
"I do not possess a teleslate, so yes," says Terravox. "Outside of the major city-states, this is the only way to record what I see."
"You're pretty good at it." Caelus reaches out to trace over the details of a bird, sharp-beaked and round on the paper.
"You should have seen my early attempts, then. I've had several hundred years to practice."
Several hundred years. It echoes through Caelus's mind, and Terravox brushes it off like it's nothing. Several hundred years. It's only been a handful of weeks for Caelus. Several hundred years… that explained a shocking amount.
"That's… a lot of practice." His voice wavers and he tries to tamp down the emotion that makes it tremble.
"I don't think you brought me here to look at research notes, as interesting as you may seem to find them," Terravox says. "I did say I wanted to hear what you thought, and now there is nothing to interrupt that."
Caelus takes the obvious distraction for what it is. "There's a lot you might not know about Amphoreus."
It had taken Anaxa months to convince the Chrysos Heirs of the previous Cycle that they were caught in some form of loop. Knowing what he knows, Caelus watches Terravox watching him talk, none of the tight judgement in his eyes that he's used to seeing from the others.
"So you mean to tell me that not only is the Era Nova false, but we are stuck in an endless series of looped timelines, none of this is 'real', but that friend you speak of… was caught in the loop before this and absorbed into Amphoreus? And I'm-" Terravox cuts himself off abruptly.
"I know it all sounds a bit too farfetched, but yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying."
The dragon sits down on the lounge that used to be Dan Heng's, shuffling aside papers and notes to the table next to it, not meeting Caelus's eyes. "I'm just what was left behind? That's why you look at me the way you do?"
"No, that's not it, just-" Caelus trails off. How do you even say you're a combination of a previous demigod and the traveler that might have been my boyfriend if we'd had more time without feeling incredibly dismissive? "I'm sorry I look like that enough for you to notice it."
Terravox doesn't look up at him, doesn't reply. There's a sinking feeling in Caelus's stomach.
"There was a train, right?"
Caelus whips back towards Terravox, whose eyes are still firmly focused on the floor.
"There was a train. We traveled on it. There were… six of us? One was a— not human." He presses the unclawed hand against his eyes, gritting his teeth. "It's hard to remember."
"Don't push it." Caelus rushes down to sit next to the dragon. "You don't have to push it, I promise."
Tired golden eyes flick up to meet Caelus's. "Your friend's name was Dan Heng, was it not?"
"Yeah," he breathes. "It was."
Terravox is silent for a long moment, looking away again. Caelus waits, half holding his breath.
"Caelus," he finally says, after a long moment, voice soft. "What happened to March? What happened to me?"
Now he's really holding his breath, barely daring to move.
"I…" and he looks down at his hands, at the coat draped over one shoulder, twists around to see his tail, "what? How long has it been?"
"…Dan Heng?"
He barely dares to hope.
"It's me. I believe it's me. I'm…" He goes to wipe his eyes with the gauntleted hand and catches it last second again. "My head hurts. Caelus, what happened?"
"…I'm not sure."
It's not the whole truth, but it isn't a lie either. He really doesn't know exactly what happened. Most of what he'd told Terravox was formed from educated guesses and the limited actual information he'd gotten from Lygus before taking the Intellitron's head off his shoulders.
"Everything is a bit blurry. The last thing I can remember clearly is-" Dan Heng scrunches his eyes shut, focused. "I was with March, somewhere in between Amphoreus and the Express. I'll take all of… this… to mean we didn't make it back."
Caelus sighs. "As far as I can tell, when the simulation reset, both of you were still inside. Neither of you had this, though." He fishes the little Curio Screwllum had given him out of his pocket. "I landed in this Cycle about two months ago in Aedes Elysiae with Cyrene, with my memory intact. As far as I can tell, both of you were thrown much further back in the timeline."
Dan Heng reaches up to his face again, pauses the movement, and slips the clawed gauntlet off his right hand, setting it down to the side. He then promptly buries his face in his hands. "Aeons, this is…"
"Yeah," says Caelus, leaning over to bump Dan Heng with his shoulder. "If you want to help me kill Lygus next time he reconstructs himself, I would be so down, I just have to say."
Dan Heng chases Caelus's shoulder when he pulls back, leaning against Caelus in turn. "I would not complain against that."
He's still stuck in the wrong body. Thinking too hard about it makes his head hurt. But Caelus has Dan Heng back, and he will never, ever take that for granted.