I’m Calling You Athy
Chapter three
I'm Calling You Athy
Ione
It has four arms. Four muscled, heavily tattooed arms. Two of them, the original arms?
The ones everyone has, are crossed across its expansive chest. The other two hang by its sides.
It sounds like a male, and from the shape of its body and imposing frame, I am going to assume he is.
He has four eyes, two are completely black, including the sclera, the other two are normal except for the red irises.
His waist isn't tapered, but thick, heaving with muscle, and slightly damp for some reason?
The only clothing he has on is a green tunic held together with a band of brown braided cord.
The tattoos on his body are runes? Symbols of some kind that I have never seen before.
His face is bare, impeccable jaw line and I only notice that because he's clenching and unclenching his jaw.
His hair is long, silvery, touching his shoulders but slicked back.
The sides of his head are shaved, the only part of his body not covered in those tattoos.
"I said bow, female, do your kind no longer recognize that which is infinitely above you?" He growls at me.
"Who are you and how did you get in here?" Stupid, I haven't turned around yet. I can't. My feet won't move and his gaze is holding me through the mirror, at least that's what this feels like.
He closes both sets of eyes slowly while opening and closing his mouth. He has fangs, or just pointy vampire-esque teeth. "You wish to know your god? Odd, you wear my symbol of covenant, how do you not know?"
The ring. My hands are shaking trying to remove it, which seems to piss him off.
"Stop it! You cannot remove what has been placed.
You chose this, I felt it." The shadows move as he does, apart of him, and yet not?
The tendrils of black gently brush against the objects in my room, against my bare feet.
"So many other creatures of the night. Those that play between boundaries and yet they have not conquered this realm.
Pitiful." He ducks his head to enter my room.
"Then again, humans are prolific as rabbits, prey to be consumed, easily skinned.
" He sighs. "Yet, you are tenacious and crafty. Redeeming qualities."
At the word, 'skinned,' is where action enters my bloodstream. Turning around, I hightail it out of my room, down the stairs, and I nearly make it to the door before he appears before me.
"Enough, I tire of your feeble machinations." He reaches for me, grabbing the front of my shirt, lifting me off the ground. "You smell delicious rabbit, just entering your ovulation or is that terror you're giving off?" He rubs his nose against mine, breathing deeply. "Both, I like that."
"What are you?" I manage to squeak out, body limp.
Again, he sighs. "I am the Veil between Worlds, The Withering, A Harbinger of the Final Silence, Athanasius Necrothys, is what humans were fond of calling me.
" Setting me down on my feet, he continues.
"I am a primordial of this world and the next.
Darkness is my home, death is my breath, and you—" He glances at me.
"Rabbit, are my avatar to usher in a reign of shadow.
My guide and priestess until I can assume my true form. "
What the hell have I got myself into? Orlaya was right! I play around too much. "My name is Ione." I whisper.
Athanasius Necrothys, because I'm not saying that long ass title, chuckles. "I do not give a fuck."
Something about that itches my brain. The little self preservation I did have is now gone. "Fine, Athy." The lower set of eyes roll in his face. Disgusting. "I'm not saying that whole shebang."
I should have known that would touch a sore spot because the speed at which he crowds my space is astronomical. "Kneel."
"No, than—"
Too late! I'm on my knees, face pressed to the ground in front of his feet. "You talk a lot, normally, I can ignore such things, but there's something defiant about you. Despite the fact that you're teetering between hysteria and rebelliousness."
"Let me up!" I feel like gravity is weighing down me. Pressing my form into the hardwood. "Let me go."
"Let us," He crouches in front of me. "Get something straight first, do you understand me, rabbit?"
I don't have much of a choice and it seems he takes my silence for obedience.
"You placed my symbol on your finger. We are bound, you will serve me. You know my name and what I am. I expect obedience, am I understood?"
I can feel my fingers, slowly, I can move and Athy (I refuse to say the whole thing) reaches forward and helps me into a sitting position.
"I can be a merciful deity, or I can rule you like a god," He smiles, his upper eyes are focused on mine and the lower set linger on my mouth.
"An angry god, the choice is yours, but in everything else, Ione, you have no say. "
And that's how I found myself sitting at my dinner table watching Athy tear through roasted chicken, collard greens, mashed potatoes, rolls, and swallow a whole gallon of sweet tea in one gulp.
He doesn't speak, and if he's a primordial why does he need to eat?
Questions are burning inside of me. He finally finishes, wiping his mouth on one of his right arms. His tongue moves over his teeth, and he sits back in the chair that I'm surprised is holding him.
"Clear the table, rabbit."
Narrowing my eyes, I sigh heavily. "My name is Ione. Ione Phaedra Davis. I've never had a nickname, so Ione it is. Why do you keep calling me rabbit?"
"Because you are. Humans are prey animals who pretend to be predators in the right circumstances. You breed and infest this earth with your numbers. Rabbits." He repeats. "Lucky for you to be in my service, a pampered bunny." Rolling my eyes earns a growl. "Do not sass me."
"Don't get sassed."
"Clear the table," Athy repeats. "Your listening skills are atrocious."
"I'm going to clear it because I have to, not because you're asking me to." Grabbing the dishes, I stop and stare at his face. Which pair of eyes do I look at? My gaze goes up and down and I realize he's following my gaze.
"Just pick a pair and look at those, fuck, what is wrong with you humans?" He snaps. "You dare to look at me in my face, that's bad enough."
"I didn't know I couldn't do that." I reply sneering.
"Ignorance is an excuse for children," He reaches forward poking my breast. "I can tell you are an adult."
Taking a step back, I can feel my face reddening. "If you don't want this plate smashed on your head, I suggest you rethink where you put your hands."
Athanasius laughs in my face. "You belong to me, rabbit, I do as I please," His voice lowers as his gaze darkens. "With all of you."
A shiver runs down my spine watching him lick his lips. It's best for me to change the subject. "Why do you need to eat?"
"Questions, I hate mundane questions." He relaxes his cheek against his fist. "I have been bored however, this might entertain me."
Oh goody. I expected myself to be more up in arms or afraid of what's happening here, but I feel calm. "Please do."
"I don't need to, but in this form, it's a pleasure and sates my cravings." As I reach for another plate, he adjusts his position. "Where did you find my ring?"
"In the dirt," I sigh. "I was digging a hole to plant a tree, found a box, put on the ring as a joke, tale as old as time."
"Yet, new to me." He interlaces his fingers. "My avatars, they were passed down, they chose to be as they were, but never found."
Nodding, I grab the sanitizing wipes. "So, you used to have worshippers, something happened. Want to tell me what?"
Athy tsks. "Humans. Magic-wielding humans."
According to Athanasius, there was a time when his kind was worshipped as they were 'supposed to be.
' Feared, respected and given the praise that was 'due to them.
' There are four of his kind, and he has a twin.
As Athanasius is the Dark and Death, his sister is Light and Life.
The last two are over Destiny and Time. Together, they have ruled over this realm for time immemorial.
"Things are as they are. Humans live and die. They fulfill their destiny and create new ones in their offspring. Time passes for them as humans understand it." He watches as I sit down in my chair, continuing. "Some do not want to live within those confines."
The primordials, eternal and unshaken, were betrayed by those bound to serve them.
Their avatars, sworn to be vessels of their will, turned against them, seduced by the whispers of mortal ambition.
The mages, desperate to carve out dominion over existence itself, spun honeyed lies and half-truths, promising the avatars power beyond imagining.
All they needed was obedience, a single act of treachery—a binding, a seal, an end to the old order.
"It was folly." He sneers. "The mage's wielded their arcane might and chained us in prisons of spell and silver.
" He shook his head, rolling both sets of eyes.
"But to believe that time could be shackled, that destiny could be denied, that light could be dimmed, that darkness could be expelled, or that death could be halted—this was their greatest arrogance.
These forces are not mere concepts to be contained; we are the fundamental weavers of reality, the very pulse of existence! "
But according to him, they succeeded in part.
Athanasius, the eternal arbiter of death, (I really need to know if he gives himself these nicknames) was bound within a simple ring, his vast essence (his words not mine) confined to a cold, gleaming band upon a mortal's hand.
And though his name was silenced in the tongues of men, death did not cease.
The rivers still carried the drowned, the pyres still burned, and the graves still yawned wide.
"Through time, my siblings have stirred. I can feel them, a distant thrum through the veil of time." He rubs his forehead. "They are no longer confined, slipping through the cracks of their prisons, unfurling their boundless forms into the world once more."
Licking my lips, I nod my head. "And when you're whole? When you four are together as you're meant to be?"
"We will ascend," He stands, tapping all ten of the fingers on his left hand on the table. "Rising through our avatars to reclaim the dominion stolen from us." He smiles at me. "And the world will pay the price."
"That doesn't sound fair." I whisper. "Why not just punish those who've wrong you? It seems ungodly to hold a grudge so long. Beneath you, don't you think?"
He scoffs. "Gods are cruel. Unkind. Self-serving to a point and determined to always be obeyed.
I am greater than anything you have ever known and ever will.
Your entire will to be is contained in the idea that I wish it to be.
With a flick of my wrist I can rend your skin from bone and you won't feel it until I command it.
" He slams his fist on my table. "Who are you to tell me what is beneath me, female! "
Athanasius states that is the last to be freed, but his deliverance is already at hand.
Me, the unwitting key, bears his prison upon my finger.
I have no choice; the ring binds us in ways I do not yet understand.
(According to him) Whether I fight or yield, it matters not.
He will be free. The cycle will complete.
"Then, the sky will crack, the seas will boil, and the lands will drown in a tide of blood. Light and darkness, entwined, everlasting. The balance will be restored, and the mages' folly will be written in ruin."
The primordials had been betrayed.
"To think you can outsmart a primordial is to mistake the patience of eternity for mercy, and the silence before the storm for surrender."