The Death of Time

Wanderings and wonderings...

 Ananke and Herald were flying back to where she had originally come from, a strange deja vu for the mortal and god inside her mind. This time there was no phone call to her therapist, no doubting of her sanity, and strangely enough, this time there was more of a sense of her actions. Almost despite the absolute madness of her recent exploits, Ananke was starting to feel again. Nothing major at first but she found herself almost faintly excited to be moving forwards, to something new. So it was almost painfully inevitable that she dreamt of something old on the long flight towards home.

Ananke's wedding day had started out with perfect conditions. The sun was bright overhead, the air was crisp and cool without being bone numbingly cold and the snow on the ground looked etched in crystal. Her husband to be Andru was standing with his back to her, the broad shoulders of his muscled body looking good under the expensive fabric of his tuxedo. The echoed memories of her wedding day held traces of with excitement, anxiety, hope and a blinding love. She had nearly flaoted over the ground between them to wrap her arms around his waist, careless of the supersticions surrounding the wedding day.

Andru's laughter was bright and happy and he held her arms close, pulling her hand up to kiss the fingers delicately. The memory wasn't forced to follow linear constraints and when Andru turned to look at Anake, it was suddenly the moment she had come down the aisle to wed him properly. The Ananke of memory was amazed once again by how handsome he was and the happiness in his eyes at being married to her.

"Ana..." Andru breathed, ignoring the church full of people around them, ignoring even the propriety of their setting and just coming to grab her hand. As if he were afraid she'd run away from him.

Another small jump in time and the memory had their wedding kiss. The Ananke of memory swooned with feminine delight but 'nake was starting to fight the memory, waking up as much as she could and realizing that she didn't want to endure the brief moments of happiness and naive she had with her ex husband. It just tore new wounds into her and with the numbness thawing slightly more and more it hurt in a way she wasn't ready to face yet. And still the memory endured.

Chronos was watching it from her point of view, the intimacy of the memories not allowing them any other perspective. And it astonished him to feel her strength of emotions then compared to her barrenness of them now. It was like he was watching the memories of an entirely different soul wearing the same flesh. He wondered what it was that had occured for the love and happiness of this memory and the man in it to gain such a powerful revulsion to 'nake now. He also wondered why this memory was cropping up now of all Times. There had to be a reason for it, something that Thanatos and Mnemosyne had hidden from her, or needed to remind her of for the task ahead. But Chronos wasn't sure of which it was yet. And with 'nake doing her utter best to halt the memory, he might never find out. So despite the emotional pain it caused her, Chronos held them anchored to the dreaming memory.

When he realized the moment of the memory though, even Chronos tried to pull them free, but it was far too late. He was witnessing her wedding night and the Father of Time had no desire to be aware of his host in a sexual manner. He had seen many intimate moments, had been the paramour in even more and there wasn't much he hadn''t born witness too in Time, and yet he still felt the uncomfortable urge to blush at intruding. Besides, he had never experiences the event inside a woman's body.

Ananke of the memory was undressed and helping pull the layers of clothing off of her brand new husband, both of then nervous and laughing. It surprised Chronos to be suddenly aware of the fact that Ananke had been a virgin and it made him deeply disturbed that she now held such hatred for the man she had given herself to back then. It was a strange discord between the Ananke that was brimming with love, desire and excitement and the 'nake that was terribly cold and filled with a biting numbness. With the memory unstoppable, and seemingly unwilling to jump through time now that both witnesses wanted to skip the scene, they were a part of the memory as Ananke and Andru cosumated their marriage in a very vigorous and primal fashion. Chronos did his best to remain analytical about the whole manner, finding himself surprised at Andru's almost willnig submissiveness to Ananke's blooming sexual discovery and frankly impressed with Ananke's own adventurousness. Their passion was infectious and it leeched from the memory to flush both witnesses. It was uncomforably arousing for the God who had no body of his own, and even more painfully awkward for the mortal who's flesh he wore and who's memory it was.  Chronos could feel 'nake continuously try to pull them out of the memory until the entire scene had played out and yet at the same time he knew she was as aware of it as he was. There was a reason she needed to be reminded of this moment in specific, although Chronos still hadn't figured out what it was.

There were no hidden gods in the background, no visions of Time to interrupt and nothing other than a rather passionate wedding night to bare witness to. It was all so mundane and mortal and Chronos failed to see why it was important, other than the emotional content it held for Ananke. And maybe that was all the memory was supposed to impart to her. But Chronos suspected that there was something more that he was still missing and it chafed at him to have to wait to discover the truth.

The memory of the wedding night ended and Chronos could feel 'nake almost slump in relief. No other memory came up to take it's place as they both waited, as if expecting another shoe to drop. Do you know why that memory was important? Chronos asked, the silence between them stiff and brittle seeming.

Ananke remained silent though, either unwilling to reply or somehow unaware of what he has said. True the body they shared was sleeping, but Chronos hadn't yet had a problem communicating with her before this. And then it was his turn to be pulled into a memory he did not want to bear witness to again and it made him feel terribly isolated and alone, his connection to Ananke not at all touched but no where in his conscious mind.

His body was being dragged to the Heart of Time. The floor under his feet was metal and cold, alien feeling and sterile. He wasn't able to see who pulled him, his gaze unfocused and blurry, eyes blinded by tears and pain. They cleared only when he had been dropped before the Heart and left to face his cruel Fate. True Death or take up the burden of Time. His body was broken in a way only an Immortal could endure and even though he was healing, the pain was an infectious agent, whispering terror in his dripping blood. He didn't want to die and the cruel irony now was that the Chronos witnesses the memory knew he was dying anyways. It was just delaying the inevitable, but he was unable to call out and warn the younger version of himself about the uselessness of his acceptance.

Instead, even Chronos could not tear free of the memory as the past version of himself looked upon the Heart of Time. It was a monstrous altar, an impossible melding of metal and stone, living earth, burning fire and magic. It throbbed with life and somehow whispered to him with Power, promising pain and glory and sweet, blessed Life. It was a terrible lie but Chronos accepted it and the real horror of his choice started. Metal tendrils shot out from the Heart and wrapped around his broken body, twisting tightly and pulling him upright. The coilds chafed and hurt, a strange electrical burning running through them and into his body as they lifted him from the floor and brought him to lay almost gently down on the top of the altar. Then the coils loosened from around his body and instead tore into his flesh, melting into his body to irreversably connect him to the Heart. The blood of his flesh drained away into Time, the bones of his body shattered and refused and he could no longer scream for the pain of it all. And then his mind was cast free to stand stewardship over Time itself, banished from the form it had known and his eternity of exile truely began.

The turbulence of the plane landing woke Ananke and Chronos from their nightmares. The boundary between their minds felt more established and yet was painfully tight at the same time, unnatural and disjointed. Neither one wanted to speak on what they had witnessed of their own hi온라인카지노게임 or had seen of the others. Herald was watching as if he knew something had occured, but was unaware of what, although his hand stroked Ananke's in unconscious comfort.

It disturbed Chronos to have the immoral man touching her, more so now that he was aware of how little Ananke liked to be handled since Andru. It made him feel strangely protective of her, and combined with his own jitteriness from his memory it was surprising he didn't immediately lash out in anger. Something from Ananke's memory must have bleed through to Herald, because there was no other explanation for the normally reserved immortal man's actions otherwise. When Herald saw Ananke open her eyes and regard him, he hesitated for a moment and then leant forward and kissed her full on the lips. Chronos knew that both he and Hades had done the exact same thing, and it had never bothered him or 'nake before. It shouldn't bother either one of them now and yet it discomforted the Father of Time.

Ananke froze as Herald's lips touched hers. She hadn't cared when Hades had done it, or Chronos through Hades, but the part of her that was awakening from it's hibernation quaked and ached at the contact. Watching the love and passion she'd once had wounded her and yet 'nake refused to let Andru have that win over her. So she allowed Herald to kiss her and when he realized she wasn't lashing out, Herald cupped the side of her face gently, deepening the kiss.

The return of sensation was glorious on it's own. After centuries without, each returned touch was a delight and cherished. And it all palled next to the chance to actually kiss the woman that was allowing it to happen. Herald knew it was wildly inappropriate and he couldn't pinpoint where the urge had come from, but when Ananke had returned the pressure against his lips, all worry and restraint fled. He could taste and smell more clearly now it seemed, enjoying the heat of her tongue against his, the softness of the skin under his fingers. The throb of the blood surging through his veins. He could enjoy an entirely alive experience and if it weren't for the fact that they were in public he was eager to sink into her completely.

Chronos tried to let Ananke have a moment, maybe this was what she wanted with Herald but his patience only lasted so long. ENOUGH! he barked out at the same time that Ananke shoved Herald away. And neither one knew if her actions had been her own or somehow Chronos seizing control of the body they shared. The immortal man looked startled and confused but covered it up immediately.

"I apologize." His tone was calm and he seemed entirely back to how he normally appeared. But now Chronos wasn't sure if he could trust that and he could feel Ananke's uncertainty as to whom had compelled the actions of her body.

“Don’t worry about it. Just… we need to get moving.” Ananke sounded calm and controlled although Chronos could tell she wasn’t.

No one voiced an argument though there was tension thick in the air. The crowds of the airport certainly didn’t help and neither did the closeness of the taxi ride. But Herald remained carefully distant, doing his best not to touch Ananke unless it was necessary, and she did her best not to immediately jerk away from contact, all while Chronos did his best to test the boundaries without either of the humans knowing. Ananke felt like she was scraped raw on the inside and bruised on the outside and there was a strange buzzing in her ears that left her feeling slightly dizzy. She did her best to ignore it and focus on the mental list of items they would need for where they were going. Chronos’ guidance had shown that it was going to be inhumanly cold. Not the regular weather of the location, but of the space beyond the Veil. And Ananke’s hi온라인카지노게임 actually prepared her for this kind of environment, so she felt confident in the supplies they would require.

She scribbled the items down in order of priority as the taxi pulled her and Herald up to the warehouse. It was a well known equipment shop for those who liked to live life on the outdoors fast track. And once upon a time it had been the shop she had spent the most money in, equipping herself and her team for the long, dangerous days out on the ice. So it should have occurred to her just what she might walk into in that place of old memories, but Ananke walked in without considering it.

The aisles were still the same after a year, the items changing out but the layout the same. Made a lot of sense since they were metals frames bolted to the floor to ensure that the heavier items didn’t topple them all to the ground in a dangerous dominoes display. Bodies swirled and bustled through the racks, the tromp of feet going up the staircase a background music to Ananke’s ears and it surprised her how at home she felt here. Nothing bad had happened in this place to her and so the memories were safe. The sense of relaxing eased the painful boundary between ‘nake and Chronos and he felt his psyche able to relax in return, seeping back down and settling into place. He could feel the adrenaline spike in the blood of her body as she was excited over seeing the items available, the professional part of her mind immediately cataloguing what they were going to buy. Chronos could feel Herald hovering close by, too close after the stunt in the airplane but the masses of bodies pushing past them necessitated that proximity. The place smelled to Chronos’ still sensitive nose. Not necessarily all bad smells either, but it was a strong mix of plastics and rubbers, metal, body scent and mixed fabrics. Ananke’s nose itched at the bombardment and Chronos’ hyper focus on it only exasperated the situation until she sneezed.  It was the final clue that let Chronos know that yes, he was starting to influence the body they shared. It meant leaving himself terribly exposed to her influence, but it allowed him to gain control, minutely thus far but it would grow now that he was aware of it. Neither Ananke nor Chronos knew how soon that moment would come.