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Before he could protest again, his ainst hiainst his shoulder "I miss my mama, akri"

Guilt slammed into him at her whispered words as he held her close to him But for him, her mother would still be alive to love her "Where&039;s your father, Simi?"

"He died before the Simi was born"

"Then I will be your father"

"Really?" she asked hopefully

He nodded, s at her "I swear to you that you&039;ll never want for anything"

Her innocent smile warmed his heart "Then the Sihtly "Simi loves her akri" As soon as the words were spoken, she faded as his mother had done But as she faded, his skin, just above his heart burned

Hissing, Acheron jerked up his tunic to find a singerly, and heard Sihter in his head The tattoo inched its way up, toward his neck Her motion on his skin tickled until she settled over his collarbone

"Simi is a part of you now, Apostolos While on your body, she won&039;t be able to hear you unless you call for her But she will be able to er, she will appear to you in demon form to protect you"

"But she&039;s only a baby"

"Even as a baby, she&039;s deadly Never mistake that The Charonte are by their very nature killers She will be hungry and you&039;ll have to feed her often If you fail to, she&039;ll eat whatever is near hereven you Make sure she doesn&039;t get overly hungry And the last thing you should know is that her kind age very slowly Roughly one year of a human&039;s development equals a thousand years of theirs"

That did not sound good "What are you saying?"

"The Siaped at the information "Shouldn&039;t she be with another demon who can train her?"

You are all she has in this world, ios Take care of her As you have said, you are her father now You&039;ll be the one to teach her everything she knows"

Acheron placed his hand over the tattoo on his shoulder He was a father

But how could he train and protect a dehter when he didn&039;t even kno to use his oers?

June 30, 9527 BC

Athens, Greece

Acheron was desperate to find food for Si after she&039;d bitten into his hand Luckily, he&039;d stopped her before she did anything other than break his skin

"You&039;re not supposed to bite your father, Simi," he&039;d told her kindly, but fir there all still and yuht the worst that could happen was to look yuh the streets of a once great city, he realized just how e his mother had done in the brief tione Roads and buildings had been leveled People lay dead all over Greece

Apollyola

Apollymi the Great Destroyer While a small part of him was flattered by her love, the other part was horrified by what she&039;d done So one The entire world scattered into debris All of Atlantis was now lost Mankind had been thrown back into the Stone Age All their technology and tools had been lost

The survivors wailed in the streets that the gods had abandoned them when the truth was, they&039;d have been better off if they had All of them were unfortunate victiripped Si for a marketplace In human form, she&039;d taken on an appearance very si black hair and while his eyes were the saht blue She looked like any s for you to eat"

Acheron jerked around at the deep masculine voice that called out to them There was a tall, dark-haired man whose beard was thick His skin was dark like a Sumerian and yet he spoke flawless Greek Acheron held Si to him "Who are you?"

The man stepped around a fallen column to kneel before Simi He set a basket down at her feet and uncovered loaves of bread, fish and cheese "I know you&039;re hungry, sweet Dig in"

Siht before she set on the food with a vengeance

The man stood up and offered his arm to Acheron "My name is Savitar"

Acheron frowned at the tattoo of a bird that marked his forearm before he shook it "How do you know Sis, Acheron And I&039;ve come to help you learn your powers and to understand your si still to be left to callous care and the last thing I want is to see either one of you hurt because of it"

"I would never hurt her"

"I know, but the Charonte have special needs you must understand Otherwise she could dieas could you"

Acheron felt the brush of hackles rise and he wasn&039;t sure why There was sood-hood and hed "I never threaten I just kill whatever annoys me Stand down, Atlantean I&039;m here as your friend"

Once Simi had devoured every crumb, Savitar picked her up in his arh the crumbled streets "She&039;s impressive, isn&039;t she?"

"Myof your hed at the destruction his ht "Yes, she is" And as they walked Acheron realized sohts"

"No, you can&039;t And you never will You&039;ll find that s of the universe will be silent to you Soods, demons, and other special creatures We all have our secrets, but the comfort to you is that most won&039;t be able to hear yours either"

That was co "Can you hear them?"

"The answer you seek is no, but the truth is, I hear you, Acheron, and yes, I know all about your past"

He cursed at what he didn&039;t want to hear "What of the others? Will they know my past too?"

"Some will" Savitar shifted Simi in his arms, then paused to look at him "I don&039;t care about your past, Acheron It&039;s your future that matters to me I want to make sure that you have one and that you comprehend how important you are to the balance of power"

Balance of power? "I don&039;t understand"

"Apollo cursed his Apollites"

"And my mother killed them all"

Savitar shook his head "Many died with Atlantis, but there are thousands of them who have spread over the Mediterranean and who live inApollo&039;s own son, Strykerius All of them have been cursed to die on their twenty-seventh birthday All of them"

"Then how are they a problem? If they all die in a few years, they&039;ll be extinct"

Savitar stroked Siain "They&039;re not going to die, Acheron They will live and they will procreate hed before he answered "A goddess will lead them and show them how to prey on human souls to circumvent Apollo&039;s curse"

Acheron was appalled "I don&039;t understand Why would anyone do such a thing?"

"Because the universe is cos that must be maintained"

"Yes, but if you know these people will die, can&039;t you stop the goddess fro them?"

"I could But it could unravel the very essence of the universe"

Frustration ran deep through Acheron He didn&039;t understand Why would someone fail to help another if they had the power to?

Savitar picked up a randoround and held it in his hand "Tell me what happens if I throw this with all e in his head It was the stone traveling through the airit sped until it hit ahim No, not any man A soldier His arar

Eight score people would then die because the soldier could no longer protect theht for years to cooes on and on and on," Savitar said "One tiny decision: Do I throw the rock or do I drop it? And a thousand lives are changed by one innocuous decision" He let the rock fall to the ground

Noas harain and history wrote itself forward the way it was supposed to

Savitar smiled down at Simi who&039;d fallen asleep in his arms "You and I are cursed to understand how the tiniest decision o onward to affect the rest of the universe I knohat should happenwhat needs to happen And if I stop so as simple as a rock throw, it could cause catastrophic consequences However, unlike you, I don&039;t see the future until after I act Theunfold from that point on You are lucky You will always see the future before you act"

"But I didn&039;t see my sister&039;s death"

"No The Greek Fates, when they cursed you, blinded you to the fate of those closest to you Anyone you care about will be your blind spot"

"That&039;s not right"

"Well, kid, brace yourself This one&039;s even worse You also will never be able to see your own future or the future of anyone who seriously iround his teeth at the injustice "Can you see it?"

"It&039;s why I&039;m here"

"Then tell me what you see"

Savitar shook his head "Just because you can, doesn&039;t mean you should If you kneas ahead of you, you&039;d avoid doing the very things you must do in order to have it unfold properly One small innocuous decision and your destiny will be altered forever"

"But you can see your future"

"Only after I&039;ve set it into e it"

Acheron shook his head as he pondered which of them was the most cursed The one as blind or the one who saw it instantly and was powerless to stop it

Savitar clapped hi it is for you to have all this power and knowledge and not kno to channel it Or tap it"

Acheron nodded "It is hard"

Savitar s I want to teach you is fighting"

"Why fighting?"

Savitar laughed as they walked "Because you&039;re going to need it There&039;s a war co, Acheron, and you have to be prepared for it"

"A war? What kind of war?"

Savitar refused to answer Instead, he shook Simi awake "Little one, I need you to return to your akri and stay on hih, it&039;s only pretend fighting No need for you to come off him to protect him"

Simi nodded sleepily before she obeyed She drifted onto Acheron&039;s arm

"Move up, Simi," Savitar said to her "Go to his neck where you won&039;t be hit"

Acheron frowned at his orders "Can she feel a blohen she&039;s on my skin?"

"Yes, she can And if she&039;s stabbed while she&039;s there and it wounds you, it ound her too Guard your de Acheron knew, they were alone on a beach "Takeshi!" Savitar shouted

Black smoke roiled out of the earth

Acheron stepped back as the smoke cleared to reveal a man in armor the likes of which he&039;d never seen before Blood red, it wasmetal Wickedly carved blades curved up over his shoulders while a neck piece came up to cover the lower part of his face All that could be seen were his eyes and the red scrollwork tattoo that was drawn across his forehead

His black hair was tinged with red tips His eyes slanted exotically like a feral cat and they were a deep, blood red But the htened with friendship The metal around his neck folded down from his handsome face to show a man no more than a year or two older than Acheron

"Savitar-san," he greeted with a crooked grin "It&039;s been a long ti in a favor"

With one hand resting on the hilt of his sword, Takeshi tsked as he looked about the beach "Sav, you can&039;t keep doing this I&039;hed "Nothing like that" He stepped back to allow the two of them to size each other up "Takeshi, meet Acheron Acheron this is Takeshi-sensei Listen to hiht in ways you can&039;t iaze on Acheron "You would have od?"

Savitar leaned in and whispered so to Takeshi that he couldn&039;t hear

Takeshi nodded "As you wish, brother" Stepping toward Acheron, Takeshi smiled and knocked the staff out of Acheron&039;s hands He let out a long sigh of disappointment "I have much to teach you Come and learn the art of war from the one who invented it"

Cocky, Acheron ith hiht At least that&039;s what he thought until Takeshi pinned hiround with a one into motion until Acheron was face down in the sand

"Never take your eyes off your opponent," Takeshi said before he moved back and allowed Acheron to rise "And never think you don&039;t have to work for a victory Even now, you could surprise me"

Acheron frowned

Takeshi rolled his eyes "Surprise me, Atlantean Attack This isn&039;t a dance party"

Acheron went for hiain, he landed face down in the sand "You know, this isn&039;t buildingto lie here for a bit and take in sohed, then patted him on the back "Get up, Acheron" He looked over to where Savitar was now sitting on a rock watching theood"

Acheron laughed bitterly "Yes, I&039;m more of a si, kind of man"

Takeshi turned back to Acheron and handed hier is always your enemy You must keep your emotions in check The ht every tiht it into a defensive block

Takeshi tsked at him "Always be the attacker A defender never wins"

"Defenders get their asses kicked," Savitar said "Trust ot crack impressions on every pair of shoes I own"

Takeshi arched a brow at Savitar "Do you want to teach hirab a sword and come help"

The hue?"

"It would be if I didn&039;t know for a fact that you&039;re too lazy to rise to one"

"Lazy? Mesoula?"