24 AD

The Seer was surprisingly sure-footed for a blind woman. Although Helix was not sure that 'woman' was really the right the word anymore. Maybe female would be a better choice? Padding behind her, Helix followed Nona back toward Brews-A-Plenty. There were a few people drifting along the streets which made the going somewhat slow. Not to mention laborious as Helix had to hide in shadows and bushes to avoid being seen. The hour was just past midnight when the Seer and wolf finally reached the inn. Golden light spilled from the windows. Nona reached toward the door but stopped as Helix spoke.

"Wait." Tilting his head he listened, keen ears picking up the sounds beyond the door. Merry singing and the chatter of voices deep in conversation filled his ears. It seemed witches and whatever else dined here did not participate in normal sleeping and waking hours. One voice though stood out from the rest, pulling his attention. Cinix.

"I told you he would not return, Sweet. Whether from embarrassment or fear who can say."

"Shut it." Eslein snapped back. She sounded hurt. Hurt and angry.

Helix inwardly grimaced. Her words as he ran away replaying in his mind. What the hell is wrong with you? What indeed. "Is there a way through without..." His words failed him for a moment. "Without making a scene? I am a wolf after all."

And that blond bastard will probably want to scuffle again. Then there was Eslein. Helix really did not want to see the pain in her blue eyes. His own shame was far too fresh to try and reassure her, and he was certain she would need quite a bit of reassurance after his unforgivable reaction and departure. Even knowing as little as he did on the subject of love and amorous pursuits, Helix knew women tended to prefer their partners not be thinking about another when engaged in coitus.

"Unless we go to another rift we have to go in. The next closest rift is a day and a half journey up the coast by boat. Twice that by land. Of course, there is no rush."

"I highly doubt Zeus will stay in the same place forever." His low growl was laced with sarcasm.

"Of course not! But I am the Seer of the Present." She spoke as if he should understand. When he failed to respond she let out a long-suffering sigh. "I can know where anyone and anything is at this very moment. What I want I think of, and I simply know. How else do you think I do not trip?

"Now, if we continue to stand at this door someone will come out it, wonder why we are standing here, and make a fuss. So kindly make a decision your princeliness."

Her biting tone made his hackles rise. "Fine. Open the damn door and let's get on with it."

Nona Salvius did just that.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The patrons of Brews-A-Plenty barely looked up as Nona stepped over the threshold. However, as Helix stepped in behind her, a massive black wolf with hackles raised and gleaming gold eyes everyone paused. A sharp sound broke the silence, a curse snapped with such ferocity that the wolf fought the urge to flinch.

"Hallow be damn!" Cinix strode down the stairs. Razored teeth on full display. "You aren't welcome here, Seer. And you-" His seething gaze flicked to Helix. "I intend to wring plenty of answers from. Both on my behalf and that of Eslein Rey."

"Helix?"

Speak of the devil. Helix inwardly cringed. Eslein stood at the top of the stairs. Her midnight black hair falling loosely about her shoulders. For a moment the room faded away. Only the witch with her beauty, dressed in a soft black tunic and pants remained. It was the look of concern and relief that flashed in her blue eyes that pulled him back to reality. Maybe she would be angry. But she was also glad he was back.

"Nona, if we may postpone our trip a short time? I believe I would be better equipped to travel on two legs." Hushed whispers raced through the various patrons of the inn's main foyer and dining room. What never seen a wolf speak before?

Looking Cinix in the eye for a brief moment Helix knew he'd have to face the disconcerting hell beast. He instantly decided he'd rather do that in private if only to hide fight they'd most likely end up in. Or most likely the beating I will get. It was an instinct. A feeling so sure that the wolf did not even question it. Strange, Ares did not make me feel this way? In a straight up fight, the blonde would win. He wanted to deny it. Wanted to snarl and say that he stood a chance. But, everything in Helix's being denied it.

"Of course." Nona's tone was sour. "I will come tomorrow if this overgrown butterfly will allow me to take the same twenty-two steps from the front door to the Specter I've been taking for years now." She did not wait for an answer as she turned and strode back into the night. The door making a soft click as it closed behind her.

Cinix opened his mouth to speak but Helix beat him to it. "I need pants." With that, he slunk by the 'overgrown butterfly', as Nona had called him and up the stairs. Behind him, the sounds of the inn's patrons slowly returned to normal as conversation returned.

Eslein fell into step beside him as he made his way back to the room he'd run from earlier. She turned the knob letting them into the room, and unfortunately the inn's owner with them.

"For fuck's sake Cinix, can you give us a moment?"

"No."

The word was spit so violently that Helix wondered if such a single common answer could actually be used as a curse.

"He will answer my questions and then I will decide if I want to let him stay or not."

"You sound like a temperamental child." Eslein's cutting retort only served to make the Blondes teeth sharpen further.

"Perhaps you can be thrown out with him!"

"Gods have mercy." Helix groaned, his tail thumping as he unceremoniously sat on the hardwood floor. "Ask your questions." Both creatures snapped their gaze to him. The witch looked worried, the... other thing, looked ready to explode. "I have nothing to hide."

Eslein stepped to Helix's side as the blond took a moment, presumably to collect his thoughts before speaking.

"Who are you?"

Simple enough. "Helix Lycon. And as I said earlier, a prince. Albeit an exiled one."

"What-" His hazel eyes flicked over the entirety of the black coat, "Are you?"

"To be perfectly honest, I haven't a damn clue. One moment I was a man. Then I meet Ares, had a great discussion about joining him against Dacuma and now I have my insides ripped apart and remade from human to wolf, and back again. He really did not care to explain what I am, or how it works before flying off to do whatever a god does. When not toying with others lives, that is."

"I felt Dacuma's presence. Why did you call to her foul gaze?" He looked at Eslein for a moment. "And at such an inappropriate time?"

The witches cheeks flushed. She muttered something under her breath along the lines of, "Keen-eyed bastard."

Both males heard her. "You were in states of undress when I came to investigate," Cinix said, his eyes not leaving Helix. "Nothing keen about obvious observation."

She looked like she was about to respond. Helix stood and answered first, "It was an entirely unintentional mishap. One I assure you I wish had not happened." His voice was little more than a low snarl in his throat. "Now, if you are amenable to us staying, I would very much like to figure out how to get back into my skin, put my damn pants back on, and get some rest before I set off to hunt down and kill Zeus tomorrow. Is that okay with you?" While his voice had not risen in volume it magnified in intensity.

Helix felt Eslein's firm boot prod in his side. He knew why. Who in their right mind would openly discuss killing the god of lighting? Helix. Helix would. After all, he didn't count himself among the sane anymore. A sane person did not turn into a wolf, believe in witches or know any more about gods then what priests spoke on temples.

"You hunt for Zeus?" Cinix expression was as unreadable as granite.

"Yes."

"Why?"

So Helix told him. He told him the same story he'd divulged to Eslein. He left little out. Though he skimmed over a much briefer telling Sal's seduction of him as a young man and skipped her vision delivered curse all together opting for a simple, "So, Dacuma threatened me in a vision earlier." The blond creature remained steadily expressionless as he listened. As Helix came to the end, finishing with his intention to follow Nona to the mysterious Fate, he felt Eslein tense beside him.

Glancing at her Helix noticed she was staring at Cinix with a near pleading look. The innkeeper tilted his head, hazel eyes intent. "You will need more then wolfs pelt to kill a god. Let alone one as powerful as Zeus. So I am coming with you."

"W-what!" Eslein gasped.

Helix just blinked. Sure he'd heard wrong.

"I am going with him."

"You are both daft. We can't go into the Spectral lands. Not all the way to the Fate. We will die!"

"You would die." His hazel studied Helix again. "I will not, and I do not believe he will either."

The air thickened as the witch became agitated, her pupils shrinking into non-existence. "You don't know that, Cinix."

The bastard shrugged and strode toward the door. "See you at dawn Helix."

*~*~*~*~*~*

Eslein had followed Cinix, returning a while later with a scowl. She had brought Helix food, assuming correctly that he'd not eaten since running off and would be hungry. He'd made use of time she was out of the room. It had taken three tries but, at last, he'd been able to initiate a shift. The pain was still excruciating.

His clothes were still where they had been haphazardly dropped and tossed around the room. Before dressing Helix made use of the chamber pot and cleaned himself as best he could in the wash basin. The cold water felt good against his neck and face.

His face. The oddest thought danced in his mind. He had not needed to shave since Ares had changed him. How did that work? Helix had been so focused on traveling and Eslein that he really just had not given it a thought. Growing into a man he'd once hoped for a full beard. Alas, that was not meant to be. His face refused to grow hair in any kind of uniform pattern. It was patchy at best. So he'd taken to shaving the majority of his face, leaving a few short spots that helped to make him look, not completely like an adolescent youth.

Shrugging the thought away he dressed. Barely finishing before Eslein tromped into the room. Kicking the door closed with a backward snap of her leg.

"I take it he did not say what you wanted him to?"

For a long moment, she just glowered, then releasing a heavy sigh she crossed the room. "I brought you dinner."

Helix took the plate, and sat on the bed's edge, devouring its contents in moments. Swallowing the last bite of bread he glanced up to see Eslein leaning against the wall watching him, worry etched into her face. Words, apologies, entreaties, all stuck in his throat. He should say something.

"Thank you. For the food and... everything else too."

Eslein crossed the room to sit next to him. "You shouldn't go."

Setting the plate aside, Helix nodded."Probably not. Still, we did set out to hunt Zeus. If he's in there, then that's where he is and that is where I must go."

Silver tears lined her eyes, rising like an unexpected storm. "If you go in there, and Cinix is wrong... if your soul cannot handle the Specter then you won't come back. You'll just be gone. I have lost everyone. Please, please don't make me say goodbye to you as well. Even if you aren't attracted to me in the way I want, I still count you a friend after everything... and you... you can't..." Her words became more broken and quick the longer she spoke.

Taking one of her hands in his Helix squeezed softly. "I am attracted to you Eslein. And you are my friend." Their eyes met. He willed her to understand. "But if I do not go then what will I do? Our whole point in coming here was to find Zeus."

"I can't go with you." Her teeth ground together. "If I cross through the barrier my life will be pulled from me. Mortals like me, witch or not, can't go any further in then the joined places you can see through the rift. Like the village below us or Dacuma's house."

Mortals? "The Seer and Cinix both think I can go in. Am I not, mortal?" And what the hell was Cinix anyway?

"I don't know." She admitted. "That is what scares me. You could step through and be gone forever. You could be killing yourself for this."

Suicide. Was he willing to commit suicide to hunt Zeus? With no guarantee, he'd ever even laid eyes on the god? And if he did manage to reach the Fate, and confront Zeus, what then? How exactly did one kill a god?

Releasing a sigh of frustration Helix fell back onto the bed. "What is he anyway?"

"Cinix? He's dangerous."

"No shit?" Helix raised his eyebrows at her. "I mean-"

"I don't know." She interrupted, falling back next to him. "All I know is he has a strange power, unlike any witches and he can travel through the Specter at will. He's also old, in spite of his looks. Although I'm not sure how old."

"A god maybe?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so. Gods tend to claim their titles and love attention. Cinix, as you might have noticed is picky about who gets to come in."

Helix snorted in agreement but found himself distracted by her scent. She was close to him. Barely six inches separated their heads where they lay. Should I tell her? He wondered what her reaction to Sal's words and the curse would be. He also wondered how real of a curse it was if, as Nona said, Sal's power was diminished. Ever so carefully, he tested the waters.

"Do you know anything about curses?"

"Do you know anything about breathing?" She fired back, sarcastically. He laughed and Eslein smiled at the sound. "Why? Want to curse someone?" Turning to face her, Helix's laughter was replaced with leery consideration. She sobered at once. "What?"

"Earlier... I'm sorry I reacted, like that. Sal... she..." She reached out to his face, Helix fought the urge to flinch, fearing that Sal would again appear.

"Not now. Let us not speak of that now. Don't even think of her this close to the rift. If your mind calls to her then she may come again. Block her out of all thought and consideration."

Of course, Eslein was right. He should stop thinking about it. Taking a breath he changed the subject. "I like your eyes when you do the witchy thing."

"The witchy thing?" Her tone was incredulous. "Witchy thing?"

"What?" Helix's eyes sparkled mischievously, "Would you prefer I call it something else?"

*~*~*~*~*~*

Authors Note: I know, I know, fast update. I got on a groove!

Dedicated to Sim-AntinI go read her stuff! It's all amazing!