The First Age

Things happened so fast. Ayden came to and the look in her eyes matched her hair, her whisper liquid fire. Aria was in big trouble, now. Connor's own fury seemed to recede as she took charge, leaving behind a bitter after-taste of betrayal. Again. She had done it again.

Suddenly Aria seemed to be struggling, as if she were bound. Finally Nox seemed to be roused and tried to calm the situation. And then Aria tried to explain.

The words tried to punch through the fog of anger that still seemed to surround them. It made a perverse kind of sense, though Aria's manner was not contrite or apologetic in the slightest. Tired, yes. But still defiant. It was clear. She did not want them there.

Ayden was alternating between staring daggers at her and at Nox. It was bad. Any desire to continue with them withered in the heat of their glares.

He looked at Nox and that feeling of familiarity and sorrow came to him. The kid was tired and hurt and yet was trying to keep it together for everyone, to keep everyone from killing everyone else.

There was a simple solution. Connor stood up while putting his hand on Ayden's shoulder. He could feel how tense she was. "Come on Ayden. Let's leave them alone."


It was the best thing they could do. Clearly Ayden and Aria- and to a lesser extent, Nox- couldn't be in the same room with each other. He looked at Nox, still feeling sympathy. But Ayden took priority. And he had asked enough of her.

"Give me a call, man."
He looked at him for a moment. Then he looked at Ayden with a smile. "Come on. Let's go home."

"You might be strong goddess, you might be weak, but do you want to test your mettle against mine?"


He thought he was better than her! How dare... a gust of wind rose in the car and died down as quickly as it had begun. It gave Ayden pause. Had he done that? She hadn't seen a door open nor close. He was Atharim! Ayden didn't like him on principle, but now he thought to threatened her. Ayden would have taken him up on the challenge if Connor hadn't interjected.

He made her leave. He was done playing babysitter. He was done finally trying to make this boy a friend. Maybe he'd leave them alone now. Leave the boy alone - he was nothing but trouble.

They stepped to the entrance of the train, Connor's hand on her arm steadily guiding her. Ayden kept glancing back at the pair on the train. She was angry. But it wasn't at Connor - not really. He was just being his hero self. How she had ended up with a man like that she didn't know. She was hardly a hero - more like the villain. Ayden sighed. They were going to have issues through out their life - but maybe he could teach her something. She could only hope.

The train pulled to a stop and Ayden stepped out of the train leaving the pair of Atharim to whatever fate they had. She hoped never to see either of them again.

[[ continued here]]