I walk around my apartment, pulling my suitcase to the door waiting for my mom to let me know when she arrives. Looking around at all the things in here, it still feels like this apartment belongs to someone else… There are photos of me with my high school friends at our graduation, and photos of me with the people I graduated university with. I've got photos from my travels abroad during my bachelor's degree. Paintings and other art that I made, and my collection of crystals and minerals. I even still have the vintage style photos from the last time me and all my siblings were together. It had been at an antique style photo booth store, where you would dress in a theme and then have the photos done. My favourite is the one with me in the middle and all my siblings around me with firearms, it looks as though they are all protecting me. I always loved how we were in Victorian styled clothes, but now that I've worn them… I know how inaccurate it really is. Doesn't change that I love it still.

There are a few things that I made sure to bring along with me by putting them in a local storage locker before 'planting' myself on the deserted island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Namely my two most recent sketchbooks, my preserved journal with my memories of Yusuf, some old paintings, and my old hidden blade. I'm sure it would shock Astraeus and Eos how effective of a journal writer I eventually became. There are also the things that I've gained since re-immersing myself in my life. Like the photo of me with Isla and her family. They had made the trip to Canada to thank me personally for the life of their daughter just at the beginning of the month. Next to the photo I have a pile of letters and drawings from her and her family.

My phone dings with mom's messaging saying she's arrived so I grab my suitcase and lockup the apartment before leaving for my adventure with my mom.

I see my mom wave out the window of the vehicle she's driving, and I open the door and roll my suitcase down the ramp to her as she pops the trunk open for me to add my suitcase to hers. Then I hop into the front seat next to her.

"You ready for our little trip to Greece?" I grin over to my mom.

"You know it!"

"No ferries though." She jokes.

"That'll be hard around the Greek Islands…" We laugh together.

We drive away from my condo building. This all happened very suddenly, and luckily I was able to get all the time off from my two half-jobs. It was barely three weeks ago at the beginning of April, while Isla was visiting, that my mom suddenly invited me to go to Greece with her for two weeks while she does some work. She even mentioned that Mesonyx's work is even taking her by that way, so I'll be able to see her for the first time in almost five years. Now here we are, at the end of April less than a week before May and we are leaving.

And now that I have a neighbour that I know personally, and can easily call a friend, I was able to ask Emmett to check in on my suite a couple of times while I'm away.

We get through security with no issues, then after a little while of waiting and chatting we board our flight and take off to Greece.

For most of the flight I just stare out the window, lost in my mind. Of all the places in the world I've been back to Greece the most. A lot of it is because what we had decided after Kassandra and I found each other in Rome in 44 BCE. Which was almost 400 years after we had last seen each other.

The crowds are insane. I knew that this was a busy time for Rome and all what with all this stuff regarding Julius Caesar, but this is beyond what I expected. I start making my way back out of the area, snaking between groups and through anywhere I can find an opening. I bump into a woman with dark braids that are all brought to one side where they come together and hang in front of her ear.

"Pardon me." She says in Latin with a distinctly Egyptian sounding accent as she continues on further into the throngs of people. With more grace than most everyone else here, her movements fluid and steady as she moves out of sight.

I hear shouts coming from the right of me before I see a bunch of people getting pushed towards me. One trips and thus begins the human dominoes. Ending with me underneath at least three people and on top of one. As we untopple ourselves I can see a fist fight happening just a handful of metres away. The cause of the domino topple. Once the people have removed themselves from me, I stand myself up and turn to offer a hand to the person I ended up on top of.

"I'm sorry, I tried to not fall, but three people made that impossible." I say to the person as I reach out to them and I look at their faces as they take my hand and I pull her up. That's when I notice a familiar and distinct dark brown braid paired with the unforgettable large, golden-brown eyes.

"Kassandra?" Luckily, she was already standing, because my hand went slack as I noticed her in front of me. "No, it can't be. That's impossible." I switch to the Ancient Greek language for good measure, if this isn't Kassandra, she will simply look confused.

"That would be my line, Astraea. How is it you are here?" The person in front of me responds easily in Ancient Greek.

I always wagered that I had been more shocked to see her than her me, but she has always disputed that fact. After that meeting, we talked for a long time… And at the end of the discussion we agreed to meet on the cliffs of Mount Taygetos once every twenty years. I often found myself drawn to certain areas at certain times. A few of those times led opportune, and unplanned, meetings with Kassandra.

"Once we get there, we'll head straight to the hotel. After that I do have just a little bit of work… But I should be able to meet back up with you in time for supper, okay?"

"Yeah, mom, that sounds awesome. I'll probably wander around near the docks or something… Probably draw." I smile at my mom. I will probably get lost in my thoughts too… Santorini is our first stop and mom probably doesn't even have a clue was lies beneath the waves of that area.

After what feels like a long flight of drifting in my endless sea of memories when we finally descend into Santorini's airport. We gather our luggage at the conveyor and head out to grab a car to Megalochori, where our hotel room waits for us. I managed to get about an hour of sleep on the flight, but the day has begun again for us. I would have hoped to at least get one more hour, but one should be enough for me to get by until nighttime.

Before long, we arrive at the hotel and while I collect the luggage, and pay and thank the driver, mom heads in to check us into the fairly fancy looking hotel.

"Alright, can I ask you to bring my luggage up to the room for me?" Mom approaches me and passes me a key card in an envelop with our room number on it, "I'm running a little late and there's already someone waiting for me."

"Sure thing, mom. I'll probably go grab a snack and putz around for a while, text me when you finish up and I'll let you know where I'm at." I blow a kiss at her as she waves while going through the door. I look at the room number and a young girl in a uniform comes over and offers to lead me to the room, she also helps by rolling my mom's luggage along side her.

We chat a little bit on the way to the room, since my mom isn't here I switch to Greek and the girl seems very appreciative, as she confesses that her English is subpar compared to a lot of people working in the same industry. I tell her that it isn't too big of a deal and to learn it at her own pace. She gladly chats with me and she even gives me some recommendations on things I can do on my own and a couple of choice places to draw that one of her close friends enjoys. Once she leaves me in the room, I take a moment to myself.

I open the curtains to reveal a meager view of the bay between some buildings and the street below. I arrange our luggage, peruse the various pamphlets that have been spread out on the desk, and look through some of the locations mentioned on my phone.

Once I settle on somewhere to grab a snack, I stuff my sketchbook and small pack of pencils, my wallet and passport into my leather messenger bag and head out of the hotel.

I walk through the town and come across a street food vendor, where I pick up a quick snack. I sit down to eat it on a stone wall just at the end of the street. Then I begin my stroll for some sight seeing and drawing. I stop and sit once I find something I would like to draw and depending on the conditions of the area I do either a quick, loose sketch, or I do a more in depth well shaded drawing. There are a few spots where I break out the charcoals just because they feel more appropriate for the location.

Of all the things that have changed about me over my years, I'm glad that drawing isn't one of them. I almost lost it once but managed to find inspiration again. I'm glad that I can still find relaxation and inspiration with art. Even if I might have become a monster…

'I love your art… And it shows that you are human. Remember that. You are still a human and still worthy of love and happiness.' As I look out over the bay, the words float through my mind and they bring tears to my eyes. I squeeze the ring on the chain around my neck, Yusuf had said that to me… He had been one of the only people that I had told about my circumstances… Somehow, he had broken through to my over-guarded heart. He had accepted me even after I told him about everything. And he hated it when I called myself a monster. Every time I said it he would berate me, he would remind me of my emotions, my wishes, my dreams, anything he could draw on to make me remember who I am. And it worked. Over the almost nine years from when we met to when he was killed, I became more and more like my old self from before that day on the ferry in Italy. And in his final letter to me, he requested that I always remember him and what he would tell me. I only wish we could have had more time… Over time, I've been able to not hurt so much over losing him, but I can still feel the empty space left by his absence in every moment of every day. The pain immediately after it had happened had been unlike anything I had ever been through before. Even compared to when I had regained my memories near the extinction of the Isu, realizing that my family was all more than ten thousand years away from me. And when I had lost Yusuf… I had gone to Masyaf in a blizzard and nearly let myself freeze over… Luckily for me, Ezio and Sofia had come along and saved me from myself. It took me a long time to return to Istanbul after that. But I did return after a few decades had passed, it had been Ezio's last request of me that I return to visit Yusuf's grave… And so I had.

Since, I have visited Yusuf's grave every few decades. The last visit having been about seven years ago. Each time the city had changed, and it would take some effort to find a way to get to it.

The sun re-emerges from behind the puffy clouds and reels me back to Santorini. I pull my phone out of my pocket to make sure that I don't look like I've been crying and see that the time is already almost six o'clock. I should be hearing from mom soon…

I stand up and go across the path to the railing and lean against it looking out over the water glistening in the evening sun.

"Astraea? Is that you?" I hear a familiar and unexpected voice that draws my attention to the person approaching me from down the road. I smile at her.

"Kassandra!" As she approaches, I can see that it is certainly her, it seems that she has adopted a business-casual style with her neatly pressed slacks and blouse with her hair done up in a tidy bun. "How are you? I didn't expect you to be here…" But if she's here…

"I am well, I'm here because it's almost time." My heart clenches a little bit… It's almost time… She puts a hand on my shoulder, "It will probably be a few months yet, but yes…" I pull her in to a deep hug and she hugs me back. It took the weathered misthios a long time to get used to the whole hugging thing, but I managed to get there and now she easily accepts the hugs, from me at least.

"I know you've waited a long time for this… I'm glad for you, but I will miss you." I say to her while giving a tighter squeeze for a second.

"Thank you…" We step away from each other and go to sit down on the bench. "I'm glad to run into you like this. But I'm surprised to see you here… Shouldn't you have been reunited with your family by now? I thought I remembered you saying that the incident happened in 2017…" She adds.

"Well, actually…" I start.

"Astraea!" I hear my mom's voice from down the road and see her waving at me with Mesonyx walking along beside her, with Mesonyx's wheat blonde hair loose around her head, which is unusual for my older sister… Typically she prefers to keep her hair tied out of her face. Kassandra turns to see them as well and I see a glowing smile grow on her face.

"That's my mom and my eldest sister. I would like to introduce you, but you have to act like we met when I was at school in Scotland for two years, okay?"

"Of course, my friend." We both stand up from the bench and walk towards them.

"Hey, mom. Nyx! I feel like it's been forever!" I go up and hug my sister.

"And look at you, Raea! Vee told me about your progress, but it's another thing entirely to see. I am so proud of you!" Nyx comments on my loss of weight, she sounds thrilled for me, but her pewter eyes seem distant.

"Sorry, I'm a little late Astraea… It took longer than I thought." Mom puts her hands together in a play prayer for forgiveness.

"It's no problem, mom. I just drew and wandered around. I even ran into a good friend from when I was away." I gesture to Kassandra and she steps towards them a little more holding her hand out to shake.

"I'm Kassandra. I heard a lot about you from Astraea while we were living near each other." My mother shakes Kassandra's extended hand and then Nyx does.

"My name is Aurora, pleasure to meet you. I don't get much chance to meet my daughter's friends from her time in Scotland."

"I'm Nyx, Raea's oldest sibling."

"It's a pleasure meeting you both." Kassandra steps back a little bit, "Although, with how much Astraea spoke of her family, I feel as if I already know you." Kassandra jokes earning laughs from both of them.

"We all spend so much time apart from each other that she doesn't get to tell us much about her friends, so I'm afraid you have an advantage over us…" Mom says to Kassandra, "And I'm also afraid I have to cut your reunion a little short… The place we are going for supper is going to close soon and I've already called to secure a table."

"Of course, I won't keep you." Kassandra replies, "Raea, would you mind getting together for a little while tomorrow?"

"Of course, did you have a time and place in mind?" I ask my old friend.

"How about right here, say around… Eleven in the morning?"

"Sure, I'll see you then, Kassandra."

"Chaire, palié mou file." My old friend…

"Chaire." I give Kassandra one more quick hug before going off with my sister and mom.

"When did you learn Greek?" Nyx asks, sometimes I wish I had a less observant family.

"Kassandra taught me a little bit while we were neighbours, she also helped me a lot with other troubles of being alone." I laugh to lighten things a little bit.

"Jeez… Is there a language you can't learn?" Nyx pokes fun at my innate ability to learn language. There are not many I don't already know…

"It's just always come so easily for me…" I chuckle sheepishly.

"She seems likes she has been a good friend to you." My mom puts a hand on my shoulder and gives a squeeze.

"She really has, she's a wonderful person."

We go for our dinner and then walk back to the hotel and admire the sunset along the way. We chat in the lobby area of the hotel for a while until Nyx has to catch a taxi to the airport so that she can catch a flight to wherever it is she is going next.

Come to think of it, I don't really know what kind of work Nyx does. But, for that matter, I don't really know much about what my whole family does for their jobs. They never talk about their work when they're with me; at least not past the initial answer to me asking them how their jobs are going.

Mom and I end the day with a bath each before heading to bed, where she reads for a while and I flip through my day of drawing. Where I happen upon one page full of Istanbul. From the lofty spires and the Tower of Galata, to the hideout belonging to Yusuf's Brotherhood. And a few portraits of Yusuf, it seems that I can't go a single drawing session without his face appearing on at least one page. I close the book and lay on the bed opposite my mom and flick my light off before laying down to drift to sleep; at least for the few hours I need.

Eventually, she also turns off her light and nestles underneath the covers and before long we both fall asleep.

I glance around the overlook, but see no Kassandra, so I sit down at the bench and pull out my sketchbook again. I let my mind wander while my hand guides the pencil over the paper.

Luckily, my mom had a little more work stuff to finish up today, so I was able to come here alone. So, I will be able to really talk with Kassandra for a while. Our last meeting on Taygetos was… 2010. I wonder what all she's been up to since then…

"Chaire," Kassandra says as she approaches, my pencil stopping on the paper as I look up at my dear friend.

"Kassandra, I'm really happy that we happened upon each other like this…" I say as she stops in front of me for a second.

"I am too, Raea. I'm so happy for you that you have finally been able to rejoin your family." She sits down on the bench and we hug. I see her look down at my sketchbook as we settle back on the bench, "You still miss him…" Surprised I look down at my sketchbook page to see an almost fully shaded portrait of Yusuf.

"Yes… I think I always will…" I slide my fingers across the page, my hands have drawn him so many times over the last four-hundred years that they remember easily what he looked like. Kassandra places her hand on mine.

"I know…" She does… She lost her Natakas so many years ago, and like me, she has known loss over the many years, "I'm sorry that I will be causing more pain for you soon… But I'm also glad to finally be passing on this burden," She places her hand on her bag where the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus surely is, "As Aletheia has said."

"It seems we are both achieving our goals; me to have my family again, and you to finally join yours once more…" I say as I close my sketchbook, "I will miss you. But I think that, more so, I'm happy for you. You fought so hard to have your family back then, only to have to stay behind here as they all passed." I look out over the gleaming Greek waters, "I'm glad I get to have some final time with you, even if it is a little constrained time-wise…"

"I am too. There is something I wanted to give to you… I thought about seeing if I could mail it to you. I recall you saying that if I ever needed to contact you while you were with your family to go through your company, but I find myself no longer needing to do that." She pulls a little pouch out of her pocket and passes it to me. I open it and find a few small pieces of paper and a couple of keys, "These are the location to, deed for the property holding, and keys to open my last cache. I have already dealt with pretty much everything I had plans for, but I want you to have the rest. It's my way of thanking you for your centuries of friendship."

"Kassandra…" I slide the items back into the little pouch, "I… Thank you. For everything. For every time I helped you, I'm sure there were at least as many times where you helped me. You have been an amazing person to call a friend."

We stayed there chatting for a while, she mentioned seeing the piece in the news about my temporary disappearance in the Italian seas, and about my miraculous rescue from the small island. After hours of talking, my mom came with the news that we would have to leave Santorini a little bit early due to a change with her work.

"I'm sorry, Raea. I know you're glad to see your friend, but we have to leave this evening. But since the flight isn't until after sunset, if you want Kassandra, you could join us for dinner."

"That sounds lovely." Kassandra says as we all get up and go find somewhere to eat. At Kassandra's recommendation because she had already been here for a little over a year now.

Dinner goes smoothly and at the end Kassandra strolls with us back to the hotel which was only a couple of streets away.

"I'm just going to finalize our check out, then we can go and get our things." My mom says as we come in the door of the lobby.

"It's too bad that you have to leave so soon… Santorini has become a lovely island from what it was when I first stepped foot on it." Kassandra comments quietly in Ancient Greek to me.

"Yeah… But I'm fairly sure a few other things have change since then too…" I reply in the same tongue, while waving my smartphone at her.

"Are you going to tell them?" She asks tilting her head towards my mom at the front counter.

"I… I don't know…" I sigh deeply, "I promised my brother, Zephyr, I would explain eventually. He's too clever and figured out that I wasn't quite the same… But for now, I just want to spend time with them. I've waited so long, and I don't want all of that to get in the way…"

"That does sound like how you always described your brother… I'm surprised you didn't see that coming." She grins at me the way she always has when she makes a jab at me.

"I'm not all seeing…" I put my hands next to my eyes and wiggle my fingers, "I didn't even think he was going to be in Italy, and I thought that I wouldn't have to worry about seeing him… So it did kind of throw me off guard and he saw right through it."

"Sounds about right!" She chuckles a little bit, "But this won't be an easy thing to keep to yourself… Do you have any friends who know besides me right now?" She logically brings up; I think about the people I consider to be my friends…

"No… No, I do not… I have a few people that I trust certain parts with, like the person running my business in trust right now. But no one really knows..."

"You know what he would say…"

"Yes… He would remind me that I'm still just a human, and that we aren't meant to keep burdens like that to ourselves."

"And he would be right. All of that is too much of a burden for one person to bear alone. I've been fortunate to have you along to share the burden but after this… You'll be alone with your knowledge. And I know I can't truly understand with the time difference between your existence and my birth alone, but as your friend I care. Please know, that even after you shared everything with me, you have never seemed anything other than human to me." She puts a hand on my shoulder. "For my sake and for the sake of his memory, please tell at least one of your family." Kassandra implores as my mom walks over to us.

"Okay, I will… Thanks for everything, Kassandra." I give her what I know will be my last hug to her. She's said that she isn't afraid of death like she maybe would have been before, and that one of her only regrets would have been if she had left before I was able to be with my family again. And now that she has seen me with my family, I'm sure she feels less burdened over the imminent future. I've… We've had a lot of goodbyes, and we both knew that this goodbye would come sooner or later… But… That knowledge isn't making the actual goodbye any easier…

We both give a final squeeze and step back from each other.

"Have safe travels, I'll miss you. My old friend." Kassandra says in English.

"I'll miss you too, Kassandra." I look my oldest friend in the eyes. There are so many things more that I want to say…

"It was lovely to meet you, Kassandra. Thank you for any help you have been to my daughter." My mom says to Kassandra as she stops beside me.

"Your daughter was a great help to me too." She puts her hand on my shoulder as if to say, I know what you want to say… "Chaire."

"Chaire…" I respond as she turns and leaves the hotel. I put my hands in my pockets and grip the little leather pouch with my last ties to her inside.

Mom and I pack up our belongings pretty quickly, mostly because there hadn't been much opportunity to really settle in. Once we're all packed, we head down to the lobby and hand in the key cards. Then we go outside into a cab that was already waiting for us and head back the way we came to the airport.

We breeze through security and onto our plane, and mom lets me have the window seat, the sun has set, and the sky is growing darker to reveal the stars.

"I'm sorry we had to leave so suddenly like that… My job decided to move my work to Thessaloniki and the area around it… Then after that I'm actually being asked to go finish up a few things for a co-worker in Istanbul. I can send you home before that though if you want… I know this isn't exactly how you expected this trip to go…"

"Honestly, mom, it's fine. I get to tour around Greece and unwind a little bit." I take a breath; this won't seem like old me at all… I had never expressed interest in going to Turkey or Istanbul beyond admiring the Hagia Sophia, "And actually, if you don't mind… I would like to see Istanbul." She turns to face my more fully, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Really? Alright… If you want to come with me to Istanbul as well, I did promise you a two-week trip…" She digs in her bag a little bit and pulls out a folder of papers, this is the closest I've ever been to seeing documents from her job… I know it's strange to not know what job your parents do, but I never thought about it until after high school, and by then it was like a switch had been flipped. Suddenly, they had no more children to tend and they were both suddenly inundated with jobs abroad.

"Okay… So, starting tomorrow I have four days in Thessaloniki, then we take a train to Kavala and then Alexandroupoli. We are spending two days each at those cities… And then we take the train from Alexandroupoli to Istanbul. I've got three days there… Then heading home." A spike of pain in my chest makes me want to tell mom everything. About that day on the ferry and all the years that happened after… And why going to Istanbul is more going home than returning to that apartment.