From cool summer nights in the heart of lush green Athens to the miles and miles of scorching deserts, Kalliás had traveled far from what he once knew. The carriage smelled of spices and sand; the prince was laying in the seat and woke up when the wheels of the carriage hit a rock. He sat up, looking down at his thighs and then noticed a pair of worn boots on the other side of him. Kalliás tensed up, eyes becoming shot with fear and regret. A hand reached out and caught his chin, lifting his head up, and a shadowy face with jade eyes looked down at him, "Awake at last, lotus flower." The man was grinning under the cloths that wrapped around his face, a shield from the sun.

"Why did you take me?" Kalliás asked, though he knew now such questions were futile. The man leaned back and chuckled, "A lotus flower can bloom in storms and in the blistering sun. It comes out from muddy depths and sprouts beauty to the surface." He had an accent different from the Greeks, it was Northern towards the sea. Kalliás remained silent, the only music to hear was his own heartbeat and the rattling of the carriage. He began to wish he never left the safety of the palace and the protection of Gloriana and the palace guards. It was too late now; the haunting apparition that had come to him in many nightmares had finally caught him when he sought to leave behind royal life.

"It was you, waiting in the night. Wasn't it?" Kalliás swallowed a lump in his throat, growing more uncomfortable when he couldn't spot Zafeiri anywhere near him. "Ah, it was me and it was the shadows. Doesn't matter now, you are mine and you will never return to Athens." The man responded, the carriage trembling over a wooden ramp, and Kalliás' brows curved inwards, his eyes darting to the door handle. Maybe it was his lack of capability or his naïveté, but in a flash he lunged to grab the door handle and try to escape.

The man grabbed his waist tightly and opened the door, holding the prince like he weighed nothing. "Let me go! You beast!" Kalliás kicked his legs and punched at the man's shoulder until he would turn the prince to face forward, cupping his calloused hands over his mouth and nose. The prince continued to struggle until he realized he couldn't breathe, seeing towering structures blocking out sunlight, the voices of people surrounding him, and he kept writhing.

"Time to sleep, lotus flower." The man said, squeezing his hand in a way that fully closed the prince's airways. And Kalliás was losing consciousness; his writhing slowly came to a stop, and he became limp. While he passed out, the man held him bridal style and went up the large stone steps into the inner chamber of the fortress. Inside, there were large columns of a long hall, and it led to a circular bed in the center. Above it was a glass dome that let the sunlight fall into the purple velvet, a carved-out ring a few feet away from the bed and golden cuffs attached to golden chains.

The man laid the prince down on the velvet bed that was warm from the heat. His ankle was clasped with the golden cuff and then around his neck was a golden band connected to mounts on the floor. Now, the man threw the little dog onto the velvet bed as well, and Zafeiri was not doing well at all. The god inside the form of the puppy had not realized that his experience was that of a mortal being, needing food, water, and shade. He was panting and looking to his poor lover passed out with golden chains keeping him in place. He couldn't move his little limbs to comfort the sleeping beauty, and what he witnessed next made him wish he could transform and overpower this foul man that casted apparitions to terrorize Kalliás.

While the prince was sleeping, the man had turned him over and ripped his linen clothes off of the others' body, dampening his hand with oil and running over the prince's skin from head to toe, to ensure that the sun would weaken him. Zafeiri was growing angry and started to growl. Don't you touch him, you depraved creature. Though, no raging thoughts would deter the man's purpose. "Polyphemos! Come, the King has arrived!" A guard came rushing into the fortress. The man, namely Polyphemos, rose his hand and shook his head. "Do not interrupt the preparation." He snapped, and finished oiling the prince before moving him into the center of the bed. "Release the water, and if anything happens, I better be the first to know." Polyphemos stood up and eyed the prince's body and he now knew why the famous prince was so popular among the Greeks.

He stepped down as the water rushed into the rings around the bed, and the sun moving from out behind the clouds and centering above the glass dome over the prince's body. Everything was going according to plan, and Polyphemos and the guard had left the prince and his dog to rest there under the heat of the sun. Zafeiri scrambled to get onto his paws, stumbling down to the purple velvet bed, and reaching the water and began to lap it up to gain some sort of strength under the blazing sun above them. What this was for, Vasilios would not know, and the absence of communication from his brothers and sisters in Olympus made him feel utterly alone and spiteful. Inside the body of a dog, he sat down and looked towards the glass dome and called out in his mind.

Are you happy now, Hera! I have learned my lesson, and now shed this mortal coil and let me do what gods do! Hera! Will you let this mortal prince die because of my offenses? I am begging you!

Kalliás began to stir when he heard little Zafeiri barking, though much like Vasilios' useless cries, they were both alone and powerless, forgotten by the gods and suffering from a terrible fate to come.