O Stauros

It was dusk, and the full moon in the sky overhead was perfectly clear. The stars were so bright they were blinding; if someone wanted to, they could go skywatching and differentiate which star was which and what constellation each one belonged to. They would lie on the ground, drawing out the ones they saw in the night sky with their index finger. In the supercontinent Katasterismoi, the people there were deeply inspired by the constellations and astronomy, and worshiped their gods based on the various stars in the sky. Without the stars, they had nothing.

Out of all the gods the people worshipped, one of them was often cast aside from the others and seen as an outcast---a monster. Everything he did had a negative outcome, thus being viewed as the vessel for bad luck. The other gods cast him aside since he had no further use to them or the people of Katasterismoi, causing his story to never be learned about and neglected for many decades.

Soon enough, the mistreatment of the outcast backfired onto the world of Oneiros and the gods. The outcast vowed to make everyone pay for his mistreatment, demanding sacrifices from every human on Oneiros, not only Katasterismoi. He didn’t care about if he was viewed as a monster or not, his revenge was much more important to him. With each sacrifice, the more fearful Oneiros was; more fear meant that no one was able to stand in his way, even the gods of Katasterismoi, who he threatened to kill.

This growing threat of danger grew to such an extreme scale to the point where he was able conquer the world with his iron fist. No one was safe from him, regardless of their social standing.

His name? Unukalhai.

During the silent evening within Katasterismoi, in the narrow corridors where the archontates resided, quiet footsteps sounded as a singular tall, lean-looking figure walked down it at a brisk pace. The nightly curfew had begun, as it usually does at dusk. Most people in Katasterismoi were going to bed at this time, or else they had to be silent since it was quiet hours. That was how the rules were around there, and it wasn’t changing.

However, when the figure suddenly heard loud running footsteps approaching from behind him, he scoffed softly and kept walking at the same pace.

“It’s curfew; you’re supposed to not disturb anyone.”

The man spoke with a lace of sarcasm as he knew who was approaching him without having to turn around. Despite this knowledge, he remained walking as if trying to brush the person away from him.

His ignorance didn’t work, and he felt a frantic tap on his right shoulder. Groaning, he turned around. “What do you want?” He gazed down at the man in front of him, who lacked height. After studying the latter’s face, he took notice of the smaller man’s alarmed expression, which convinced him to be more willing to listen to what the man had to say.

“Er... kýrie, he’s gone.”

“Hm?” The taller figure furrowed his brows together in both surprise and suspicion, like he didn’t believe him entirely. “Tell me what really happened, Rasalhague, and don’t leave out details like you usually do. Who is gone?”

In Rasalhague’s viewpoint, he didn’t believe the shorter man and looked down upon him often. Just because he was in a higher position and technically did have power over him, didn’t mean that he had to treat Rasalhague with suspicion like it was “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”.

Rasalhague scoffed, his voice growing more urgent. “That is what happened, Sabik. It’s the newborn. His mitéra ran off with him after they were threatened, as did his patéras. They’ve disappeared without a trace, and everyone has been looking for them. They’re gone.”

Sabik let out a long sigh, making a silent note to himself that this must’ve been true. Rasalhague had known Sabik for far too long to dare lie to him, and he wouldn’t make up something like this. He stood in the same place for a while, his hand on his temple, as he quietly contemplated how he was going to deal with this situation.

“I know that Unukalhai is after him, but he needs to come back. He’s the theion. The divinity. He can’t back out of this.”

“So, how are we going to get him back? When will we?” Rasalhague prompted, leaning close to Sabik and invading his space.

As he did so, Sabik shot him a glare and pushed him away a few inches from him before continuing. “On his eighteenth birthday. He should be strong enough by then to withstand Unukalhai,” Pausing to look outside a window opposite to the doors inside the corridor as if trying to look for something that could be out there, he spoke again. “And ‘how’? I know of someone who can safely transport him back here. The plan should be simple, but that’s only if everything works out smoothly.”

“What about Oneiros as a whole? It’s going to take a lot out of him to carry this amount of weight on his shoulders.”

“That might be something he’ll have to handle on his own, but we will have his back as best as we can.”