After the first time the shadows engulfed him, it happened again. And again. Each time the pattern repeated itself, he lost more hours of the day, the gap in his memory increasing, leaving behind a hazy memory that felt like it belonged to someone else.
In the hours when he was fully himself, he moved with quiet urgency.
Those moments felt fragile. Temporary.
He refused to watch the fear in his family's eyes at the thought of him disappearing, and focused on assuaging his guilt.
He sketched her from memory.
The woman from the forest.
The one he had killed.
He could still see her face when he closed his eyes. The face in his mind kept changing, moving from a vicious smile, to the hollow eyes he remembered.
He needed to know.
Was she truly a monster?
Or had he murdered his kind?
He had to find out.
When he tried to leave the mansion with the portrait tucked inside a coat pocket, a voice stopped him.
"You do not have to investigate this. You know?" Cronus stood near the doorway, arms folded, expression unreadable.
"I have to." Zeus replied quietly.
"You will not," Cronus said. He did not raise his voice, but his tone carried the weight of finality. "If you are seen going through the database, questions will be asked. Questions you are not prepared to answer. Besides that," he paused. "You aren't even well enough."
He paused.
"Give the portrait to me."
Zeus handed it to Cronus reluctantly.
Cronus studied it for a moment. "...You remember her clearly?"
"It's almost like i remember everything." That was the problem.
Cronus folded the sketch carefully, and slid it inside his coat.
"I will investigate it for you, and find you the answers. In the mean time... try to get that thing under control, or train."
And he did.
Training became his anchor.
If he was moving, he wasn't thinking.
If he was exhausted, the shadows were quieter.
Cronus trained along with him as his spar partner, both of them blindfolded.
He did not go easy on him.
Steel clashed against steel, fist against fist in the archery grounds. Dust rose beneath their feet. Bruises bloomed along Zeus's ribs and shoulders, his palm bearing more than one cut.
"Your stance is unstable." Cronus said, knocking him off his feet once more.
He forced himself up.
Again.
"Why do you suddenly hesitate. It would get you killed in the tournament."
He got up again.
"Control your breathing. It could be used against you." Cronus bellowed, attacking harder.
The upcoming tournament loomed. It was the primordial round where the winners from the frury rounds would be locked within the formless expanse of a Dome. Forced to rely blindly on their inherited powers, and fight to seize control of the unpredictable landscape, with the victor moving to the final round.
A single mistake there would not just mean defeat for Zeus.
He would lose his throne.
And if the shadows took control in the arena...
He didn't want to imagine it.
School meanwhile blurred into grey routine.
He walked the same corridors, sat in the same seat. Answered nothing. Spoke to no one.
But in truth, sometimes he wasn't the one walking.
The shadows moved him like a puppet, silent, detached, observing the world through his eyes as if studying their prey.
He was halfway down the stone steps, near the lotus pavilion when a voice called out. "Zeus. Hey! Wait!"
But he didn't hear.
He barely heard most things lately.
He walked ahead, not registering it.
Not until hours later, when he was himself and the memories came back to him in fragments. Her voice was barely audible, almost a whisper.
He froze in his room that night.
"She called me."
The realization felt heavy. He pressed his palm to his face. "I did not even look at her."
'Had that shadows decided that she wasn't worth the attention. Or was it something else.'
There was a knock on his door.
He snapped out of it, and sat on his bed.
"Come in. Its open."
The door opened, and Metis walked in. She watched him with careful eyes. "What is our house name?"
It was what she did lately to know if it was him or not.
"Its Hera." He replied.
She dropped a satchel on a table, and stood akwardly for a moment before she noticed his windows and walked towards them. "How comes the servants haven't done their job?" She asked drawing his curtains for him.
She turned of some on almost all of the lights and then lit an incense stick.
Her actions unsettled him, but he observed knowing it was out of care.
"I heard some things." She said quietly.
He stiffened. "About?"
"About people who lost themselves to the shadows." She said turning to look at his wrist. She reached for the satchel and pulled out a small velvet pouch. In it was a thin, black band with faint silver inscriptions that shimmered.
"How did you get that?" He asked getting up.
She looked away from him "It wasn't easy to get." She said deflecting. "Powerful relic, supposed to suppress the shadows invasion."
He stared at it. "You don't have to."
"Humor me."
He let her fasten it around his wrist.
The metal was cold.
For a brief moment, he air inside his mind quietened, and the whispers dulled.
He exhaled slowly. "Its working."
Her shoulders relaxed, a smile working its way to her face.
"Thanks mother." He said, laying down on his bed as she left.
But later that night, the shadows returned. Not loud, or forceful, just present. Like sometimes pressing against a glass wall.
The band shone slightly, the inscriptions flickering, but it still was not enough.
But he never told Metis.
Cronus came to him the next morning before breakfast. He did not sit, or take of his coat, he just placed the portrait in front of Zeus.
"I found out who she was."
Zeus blood spiked.
"She isn't from here, or any allied continent. The records show that she is from the Gelidian continent."
'Enemy continent?'
That explained her different looks.
"She was reported missing years ago," Cronus continued. "Captured by dark peddlers."
His jaw tightened.
Traffickers who dealt in altered beings. Humans twisted into something else with the use of dark powers.
"Experimented on, sold, resold. Eventually they lost track of where she was. Said she killed her last owner and vanished."
Silence settled heavily in the room.
Cronus eyes sharpened. "There are a few testimonies linking her to multiple predatory incidents. Few survived her with the help of others."
He paused.
"It seems what you saw was the truth."
Zeus felt the words sink in slowly.
'It was the truth.'
"She must have been really distorted."
He chest loosened for the first time in weeks.
He had not killed an innocent woman in the forest. He had killed something that preyed on others.
His memory had been accurate, the shadows had not fabricated it. He had not imagined her vicious smile after she had devoured that person's life essence.
Relief washed over him quietly.
"I see," he murmured.
But Cronus gaze did not soften. "Do not think because you are justified, that you will be absolved."
Zeus palm squeezed into a fist.
"The fact that she became a monster does not mean the Gelidians would forgive how you killed her...if they ever found out.
No one can ever find out."
Zeus understand what he meant. The tournament, the throne, he could lose everything, and the shadows will be exposed. He felt a shiver run down his spine.
"I know what it means," Zeus replied calmly. "I'll have to forfeit everything if anyone finds out."
Cronus searched his face intently, but Zeus looked resolute. After a moment Cronus nodded his head, and they both made their way down the dining hall where Metis was already seated.
"How are you this morning, son?" Metis asked, her eyes sparkling with hope as she gazed at his face.
He smiled, the tension in his body easing as he sat besides her. "I am fine mother," he said his voice light and carefree.
But Cronus saw the uneas in his eyes, and knew he was still on the edge.
After breakfast was done, they all stood up to leave when Metis stopped them. "We are leaving today, do not forget. Your father is arriving tomorrow." Zeus nodded in understanding, and signalled Cronus that he was leaving.
Cronus followed him out the mansion, waiting for the chauffeur to bring the ride around. "Would you come with us?" Zeus asked seriously, looking at Cronus. "I will need your help there. You don't have to stay too long, only until you want to. After that I will handle it on my own."
Cronus hesitated, weighing his options. He knew that the servants were more than capable of taking care of the fortress, but he hated dealing with his uncle. He looked at Zeus's pleading face, and ended up agreeing. "But I won't stay too long." He added as Zeus walked to the ride.
Zeus glanced at him and smiled. "I owe you one."