The Archers of Apollo are not mine, they are the creation of LocketShoru who gave me permission to borrow them for the purposes of this work. This was originally meant to be a birthday fic for the TLC Gemini twins, but I ended up leaving it to sit for a month and some after finishing it and only just got back to do the edits recently so it's a little late.
Disclaimer: I do not own Saint Seiya or any of the included characters. They all belong to Masami Kurumada.
Trees passed in a blur, green and yellow and reddish-orange all smudged together in a rush of color. Footsteps pounded behind them, chasing them down like the prey they were.
Aspros ran through the forest, Defteros at his side, past bushes and rocks and under foliage that caught in their clothes and tore at their hair.
Just a little farther, he thought desperately, Just a little farther and we'll be safe!
Ahead of him he could see where the trees thinned out before ending. If they could just make it out of the forest it would be a straight shot to the ocean, and then they'd be free. Free, and more importantly, safe.
"Aspros!" Defteros' voice broke through Aspros' thoughts, weak and rasping and barely audible over the thudding of his heart. "Aspros we have to slow down. I can't keep up!"
The older twin glanced back briefly, catching sight of his brother's face — a mirror image of his own but for the darker skin — and the sheer exhaustion in his eyes.
It hurt, seeing Defteros like this, but they didn't have a choice. They couldn't stop now. Not when freedom was almost within their grasp.
Shaking his head, Aspros called back to his brother. "You have to hold on, it's just a little farther now."
Behind them he could hear their pursuers gaining ground, right on their heels like a pack of hunting dogs chasing a pair of rabbits. If they didn't make it out of the forest in the next minute or two they'd be done for.
Time stretch, second blending into second for what seemed like hours until the trees suddenly gave way to-
A cliffside.
Aspros skidded to a stop, gasping for breath, lungs aching as he stared up at the looming wall of rock that stood before him.
Behind him Defteros wheezed painfully, and there was a soft thud as he dropped to the ground, but Aspros could barely hear it.
No, he thought desperately, panic beginning to set in as he heard their pursuers beginning to close in on them. This can't be right! I was sure Delphi was just past this forest. Was I wrong?
The horror over what could only be a huge miscalculation on his part was brushed aside as the racing footsteps suddenly stopped.
Aspros whipped around, moving to put himself between the forest and his winded twin, numb to the aching in his own lungs as he prepared for the coming confrontation.
Three Silver Saints had burst out of the trees, red-faced and furious as they glared at the two twelve-year-olds.
"You have a lot of nerve abandoning Sanctuary," the lead Saint, Hound, Aspros thought, snarled.
"Sanctuary was abusing my brother!" Aspros spat back, baring his teeth. He wasn't about to show these Saints how scared he was. Not now, not ever.
"Your brother is cursed!" one of the other Saints shot back. "He has to be kept under control or he'll betray us. It's your job to help keep him that way, but here you are letting him go free!"
"The punishment for abandoning Sanctuary is death," the Hound Saint added. "Fortunately for you, Gold Saint trainee Aspros, you're too valuable to be killed, but you're coming back to Sanctuary with us."
Aspros growled and his Cosmo started to burn, a forest fire fueled by anger and protectiveness and desperation. "We're not going anywhere with you."
The Hound Saint snorted as he and his companions readied themselves for the coming fight. "If you resist we can't guarantee that you won't be hurt."
"You won't guarantee Defteros won't be hurt if I do go willingly," Aspros retorted. He knew what Sage was like. He himself might make it out of this ill-advised escape attempt unscathed, but his brother wouldn't.
A soft rustle signaled that Defteros had managed to stand back up behind them, and his hand landed heavily on Aspros' shoulder.
"Aspros, you need to stop," Defteros murmured, voice thick with defeat. "I don't want you to get hurt fighting them. Let's just go back."
Aspros ground his teeth, anger curling in his gut. It was an unfamiliar feeling, directed wholly at Defteros and his willingness to just… give up.
"We're not going back," he said, resting one hand over his twin's. "You're not going back, and I'll kill anyone who tries to make us."
Aspros had never been this sure about anything in his life. Even the plan to leave Sanctuary had been sudden, borne of frustration at seeing his little brother in pain, and consisting of little more thought than to get Defteros to the one place where they might have a chance of making him safe.
But now, now that they'd gotten away? Aspros would rather they both die than go back.
"You're coming back to Sanctuary," Hound told them, "Even if we have to drag you back unconscious." Even before he had finished speaking he and the other Silver Saints were braced to charge.
Aspros snarled, Cosmo blazing, Defteros' hand tight on his shoulder as his brother yelled for him to stop.
The Hound Saint charged, but he'd only made it a few steps when he stumbled back with a cry of pain. The other Silvers let out startled yells and moved to catch their injured comrade to keep him from falling to the ground.
Aspros blinked, utterly caught off-guard as he took in the sight before him.
An arrow shaft jutted out of the Hound Saint's upper arm, aimed perfectly to hit right where the shoulder guard ended, in the span of flesh left unprotected by the arm guard.
The Saint snarled in anger and pain. "Who shot that arrow?" he growled, glancing around wildly.
"I think the real question is, who has the gall to be starting fights on Lord Apollo's holy grounds?" a voice cut in, sharp and threatening.
Aspros jerked around, searching for the speaker. The voice had seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once, echoing off the cliffs and rustling through the trees like a breath of wind.
At last he found them, clinging one-handed to the cliff face perhaps twenty feet up. With the sun almost directly above them he couldn't make out the person's features, only the large bow in their hand, the quiver of arrows over their shoulder, and a long, thin tail of hair hanging down past their face.
"Who are you?" one of the other Silver Saints spat, squinting up at the figure.
The stranger shifted slightly, and Aspros' breath caught briefly as they dropped to land neatly on the ground a few feet away.
"That should be my question," they said as they stepped out of the shadow of the cliff and into the sunlight.
At this distance Aspros could get a better look at the person. They appeared male, with reddish brown hair and eyes a soft shade of blue that did nothing to dull their sharp gaze.
The person looked Aspros over, eyes flashing for a long moment to Defteros, who had gone stiff like a cornered animal at his side, before turning to the Silver Saints.
He cocked his head quizzically.
"Fascinating," the newcomer murmured. "Tell me what three Saints of Athena are doing chasing a pair of children halfway across Greece, far from Sanctuary and into an area forbidden to you?"
As he spoke, three more people appeared out of the surrounding terrain.
The first, appearing out of a previously invisible nook in the cliff wall to Aspros' right, was a woman with black hair in a high knot and dark eyes that would have made Aspros flinch under any other circumstance.
The second one appeared out of the woods and was also female, with short, spiky green hair that fell down to mostly cover her eyes, carrying a much smaller bow than the other two.
The last one, who appeared from the woods in the opposite direction from the green-haired woman, was a boy who couldn't be much older than Aspros himself, and had short, fluffy light brown hair and warm, dark blue eyes. He carried a bow that curved back on itself at the ends, a little like the bow of the Sagittarius Cloth back in Sanctuary.
All three had arrows strung on their bows, although they were pointed at the ground, ready to shoot but not actively threatening.
Not yet, at least.
Aspros glanced around the assembled persons. The three Silver Saints were a definite threat, and the four newcomers couldn't be judged yet. At the very least, they didn't seem like they were on the Silver Saints' side, but Aspros wasn't willing to bet on them being friendly either.
Making bets based on an uncertainty was dangerous.
The leader of the group sighed. "I am Longbow Altair Arkon, of the Archers of Apollo. You're currently trespassing on Archer territory. You should all leave, before I and my companions have to take extreme measures to remove you."
"We're chasing a pair of deserters in order to bring them back to Sanctuary for punishment," Hound informed the man, his tone distinctly aggressive. "I suggest you move along and don't get in our way."
"Defteros isn't a deserter!" Aspros blurted out, the first thing that came to mind as the Hound Saint spoke. "He's not even a Saint trainee or a guard. He's just a prisoner!"
The leader of the strange group turned to Aspros, eyes narrowing. "A prisoner? What does that make you?"
Aspros hesitated. He could lie, say he was just a resident of Sanctuary, but somehow he didn't think this man would believe him.
"I'm- I'm a trainee," he admitted. "But Defteros is a prisoner and he didn't do anything to deserve it!"
Slowly, the Archer turned back to the Silver Saints. "Your Pope is really that concerned over a trainee and a prisoner that he would send three Silver Saints to track them down and capture them? That seems rather extreme."
"That one is a Gold Saint trainee, and his brother is a threat to Sanctuary," one of the other Silvers snapped angrily. "Of course they're valuable enough to warrant Silver Saints going after them."
"I see," Arkon said slowly. "In that case, this is none of our business and we won't get involved. I suggest you clean up your business and make yourselves scarce. If you're still here when the night patrol comes through, Lethe won't be as forgiving as I've been."
He signaled with one hand and the other three Archers started to move away, their leader moving to follow them.
Aspros panicked. The Silver Saints now had double the reason to catch him and Defteros quickly. At this rate they'd be taken back to Sanctuary, and that would be the end of them. Aspros himself would survive — Sage wouldn't want to lose him, being a Gold Saint trainee with the Holy War approaching — although he would likely face some kind of punishment. Defteros would be lucky if Sage didn't just outright kill him.
As Arkon passed by them, Aspros reached out, fingers latching onto the strap of his quiver.
"Don't leave us!" he pleaded. "Sanctuary isn't safe for my brother! He'll die if they take us back!"
The Archer turned back to tare at Aspros, head tilting faintly to the side. "Is that meant to affect us?" he asked coolly. "If your brother is a threat to Sanctuary, he could become a threat to the Archers too."
"He's not a threat!" Aspros snapped back. "Everything the Pope says about cursed stars is a lie, Defteros hasn't done anything to justify being treated like a monster!"
Defteros was tugging at his sleeve, trying to get him to stop, but Aspros couldn't stop, couldn't afford to risk losing his twin's only chance at survival.
"You don't have to take me too, I'll go back to Sanctuary. Just- don't leave my brother. Please," Aspros begged, staring up at the Archer. If this didn't work, he'd be out of options.
"Aspros no!" Defteros cried, fingers digging into his shoulder. "You can't! I can't be separated from you!"
There was a long, tense silence, and Aspros waited with baited breath. It felt like everything had stopped, even the wind, and he couldn't read the eyes of the man in front of him.
Finally the man sighed and reached down to pull Aspros' hand off his quiver.
Aspros' heart sank.
Before he could say anything else, let alone think, the man whipped around, drawing an arrow and loosing it at the Silver Saints.
"I had better not regret this when we tell Lord Apollo later," he said.
"Why did you change your mind?" The words fell from Aspros' lips before he could stop them, all curiosity and nervousness and something that might have been excitement.
They were quite a distance away from where the Archers had found him and Defteros cornered by the Silver Saints, heading Athena knew where and leaving behind three corpses that Aspros couldn't bring himself to be upset about.
Defteros had been quiet, following Arkon alongside Aspros for the past thirty minutes or so while the older female Archer brought up the rear and the two younger Archers broke off at regular points to disappear into the forest or up the cliff.
The Archer looked down at him, head tilting again — he seemed to do that a lot, Aspros thought — before he answered.
"That's a good question. Call it a moment of empathy. Or maybe a moment of weakness. I don't like seeing children treated badly." It was a simple answer, and not, perhaps, the one Aspros was expecting, but he couldn't find fault in it.
"But that's also not important right now," the redhead continued. "The important thing is that I decided to help fugitives from Sanctuary, and now you're going to have to help me justify that to Lord Apollo. Just because I decided to help you doesn't mean he won't send you back."
Aspros bit his lip, thinking. He didn't know what he could say to convince a god to help him, or even help Defteros. The closest he'd ever gotten to an actual god was probably Pope Sage, and that… that wasn't very encouraging. Sage hadn't actively hated him like he did Defteros, but he'd certainly never listened to Aspros either.
"I'll try," he finally said.
There was a quiet chuckle from the side, and Aspros looked over to see the green-haired girl watching him.
"Don't worry," she said, grinning. "Lady Alexica will probably say yes. She's fond of twins."
Aspros stared, thoroughly confused by the girl. She was weirdly cheerful for having just shot a man in the neck.
"Ah right," she said, as though she understood what was wrong. "I'm Cross Vega Lanius, an apprentice Archer. You've already been introduced to Master Arkon. The one following us is my mentor, Yumi Sirius Miyu, and the one who wandered off again is Recurve Ascella Sisyphus. He's nice, if a little spacey at times."
Aspros nodded slowly, no less confused than before, if more aware of who his and Defteros' saviors were. He hadn't really had the presence of mind to ask yet.
"Lanius, stop telling them everything." Yumi Sirius Miyu's voice was sharp, her Greek heavily accented.
"I was just introducing us!" Lanius protested, scowling.
Before Miyu could respond, Arkon spoke up.
"You can do all the introductions you want after the next sweep. It will be the last one before we reach Archer's Cove."
"Yes, sir," Lanius muttered, slinking off and scrambling up the cliff face again. Aspros was more than impressed by her climbing skills, and perhaps a touch envious.
"What's Archer's Cove?" Defteros blurted out abruptly.
Aspros would be lying if he were to claim he wasn't curious too, but he'd been reluctant to ask. Judging by the look on his twin's face, Defteros hadn't meant to ask either.
"Archer's Cove is our equivalent of Sanctuary," Arkon said. "Only better hidden."
Aspros couldn't quite help the snort that escaped him. It was true, Sanctuary wasn't very well hidden, given that it was actually considered a city-state on its own and taxed accordingly.
Footsteps sounded from the direction of the woods, and Aspros glanced to the side to see… Sisyphus, Lanius had called him, approaching from the edge of the trees.
"Everything looks clear to the south, Master," the brunette reported.
"Good," Arkon replied. "Once Lanius is back we'll head straight for the Cove so we can report what happened to Lord Apollo."
Sisyphus nodded and fell into step with his mentor.
It took several minutes for Lanius to return, but return she did, landing neatly on the ground and jogging to catch up to Arkon.
"All clear!" she reported cheerfully. "Are we heading home now?"
"We are," Arkon said. "Go bring up the rear with Miyu."
Lanius nodded and dropped back to walk with her mentor.
Silence fell across the group, and Aspros found himself gripping Defteros' hand a little tighter, suddenly, inexplicably nervous that he might lose his twin if he let go.
They walked in silence, broken only by the occasional sound of woodland creatures, for what Aspros guessed to be more than an hour before they made a turn to walk along the cliff face, the path quickly narrowing to the point that Aspros was forced to let go of Defteros' hand to avoid having one or both of them fall off and into the foaming sea below.
"How much farther?" he called over the sound of the wind.
Sisyphus glanced back and smiled encouragingly. "Not far!" he answered. "Just a little more and we'll be there."
Aspros nodded, and cast a glance back himself, catching Defteros' eye and smiling at him.
True to the Archer's word, it wasn't very long before they stepped out onto a small shelf of rock just big enough to fit the four of them with.
"Welcome to Archer's Cove," Arkon told them, sounding more than a bit proud.
Looking around, Aspros was surprised that he didn't find himself looking at empty sea, but at a large cave hidden in the cliff side.
The cave itself was massive and filled with a series of large wood platforms connected by rope bridges. Here and there Aspros spied what appeared to be tunnels leading further into the cliff side, and high above them light shone down through what looked a lot like a giant stained glass window.
Beside Aspros, Defteros let out a quiet gasp, and Aspros looked over to see the absolute look of awe on his twin's face. Defteros, he reminded himself, had never even been allowed near Sanctuary proper, and had likely never seen any structures this impressive.
Not that that meant much. Aspros had spent all but the earliest of his short years living in the Gemini Temple, and the view before him still took his breath away.
"Come on," Arkon sounded amused as he broke the twins out of their wonder. "We'll take you somewhere to wait to speak to Lord Apollo."
Aspros nodded and once again followed the brunette, this time across one of the bridges and up a series of stairs. They made their way further up the elaborate structure before entering a cave and heading down a series of tunnels.
Arkon finally lead them to a room that was empty of anything but a table and chairs.
"Wait here," he said. "I have to report to Lord Apollo and see what he wants done with you."
The twins nodded, and with that Arkon left, shutting the door behind him.
An hour or more passed before the door to the room he and Aspros had been left in opened, catching Defteros off-guard.
"Lord Apollo wants to speak to the two of you," Arkon told them.
"He does?" Aspros asked from beside him, staring up at the older man.
Arkon nodded. "Yes, he has questions and wants answers."
That was reasonable, Defteros couldn't help but think. Not that he had any idea how to explain what was going on. Aspros hadn't actually explained anything when he'd grabbed him and insisted they leave Sanctuary, except that they needed to leave immediately.
He stood up, Aspros at his side once again, hand clasped firmly in his, and followed Arkon out of the small room they'd been left in and down the hallway in the opposite direction from where they'd initially entered the tunnels that seemed to make up the majority of Archer's Cove.
The walk was short, only a few minutes, and ended at a large double-door guarded by two more Archers, a man and a woman who both carried bows of a style Defteros had never seen before. He glanced between them, taking in their shared features of tanned skin and brown hair.
"Follow me in, and kneel when I do. Lord Apollo will have questions. Make sure you answer them clearly, he won't appreciate nonsense," Arkon instructed them.
Both twins nodded, and the two Archers guarding the doors turned and pulled them open, allowing the trio to enter.
Passing through the doors, Defteros had to bite back a gasp at the room they entered. It was a cavernous space, made entirely of carved out rock that had been smoothed to the point of looking almost seamless.
A few tunnels lead off in different directions at various points around the cavern, and at the other end of the cavern was a short, steep slope up to another level space that held two thrones, each one decorated with distinctly different yet seemingly related themes. The one on the left was slightly more elaborate, with a painted sun at the top of the back, while the one to the right was more simple, with only a white crescent moon on it.
The people sitting on the thrones, however, were what truly drew the eye.
Sitting on the right hand throne was a woman with deep, rich brown skin and frosty white hair. As they approached, Defteros could make out a pair of deep blue eyes that looked him over almost critically, blinking once in a slow, catlike manner. The woman was dressed mostly in dark greens, her dress falling just below her knees, with a pair of sensible brown boots on her feet.
On the remaining throne was… another woman, this one sharing the other's brown skin, but with golden-blond hair and eyes a bright, orange-yellow that almost looked like they were glowing, even in the well-lit cavern. She was dressed in orange and yellow, stomach bare and feet clad in calf-high sandals.
Defteros blinked in confusion. He'd thought they were meeting with Artemis and Apollo, and while he could admit that the woman in green could be Artemis, he was reasonably certain that Apollo was a man.
Arkon made his way forward until he was a few feet from the raised dais and knelt down. Aspros and Defteros followed suit quickly, both keeping their heads down.
"Lord Apollo, Lady Artemis, these are the Sanctuary trainees I reported to you," the Archer said, quiet and crisp and polite.
Silence reigned after Arkon spoke, and as the seconds stretched into minutes, Defteros got the distinct feeling that the two gods were inspecting him and his brother. It was everything he could do not to fidget. He hated being watched too closely.
"What brought you into Archer territory?" The question, coming from the woman in yellow — somehow, someway, Defteros was sure she was Apollo —was soft and blunt, with no time wasted on unnecessary chatter.
Beside Defteros, Aspros swallowed and lifted his head, meeting Apollo's gaze. "We… Lord Apollo," he corrected himself quickly. "My brother and I were trying to get to Delphi. We need to speak to the Oracle. We were being chased by Saints of Athena and must have been driven off-course. Otherwise… otherwise I don't know."
It was clear that Aspros hated admitting that he didn't know, but he probably didn't think lying to the god of truth was a good idea.
Defteros didn't think it was either.
Golden eyes narrowed slightly. "And why, exactly, is a Saint trainee leaving Sanctuary without permission?"
There was silence as Aspros visibly tried to figure out how to answer the question.
"It's my fault!" Defteros said quickly.
Those sharp, sharp eyes went straight to him, and this time Defteros really did fidget, every bit of self-control he had going into not flinching.
"Aspros decided to leave Sanctuary because of how they were treating me. He wanted to get to the Oracle to learn why the Pope says I'm cursed." It was a rushed and sloppy explanation, but Defteros wasn't sure how else to tell the god before him what was going on.
"How they were treating you?" This time it was Artemis who spoke up. "What, exactly, were they doing that warranted leaving? Athena considers desertion to be one of the highest forms of treason among her Saints."
"That's..." Defteros trailed off, and Aspros took the chance to speak up again.
"They've been abusing Defteros since the moment the Pope first brought us to Sanctuary," he said. "He hasn't done anything wrong, but Pope Sage says he was born under an evil star and they have to treat him that way or he'll turn traitor!"
"The Pope," Apollo repeated.
Aspros nodded mutely.
Apollo sighed quietly. "Tell me more about this 'evil star' you were told about," she directed.
There was a pause as Aspros hesitated. "I… don't know anything else. Pope Sage always refused to give us any details, just the part about the evil star."
Silence fell once more, and Defteros waited, growing increasingly worried as the god seemed to think the situation over, until finally Artemis turned her gaze from where it had been fixed intently on Defteros and looked at Apollo instead.
"If this boy was really born under an evil star, he could be a threat to us. You should look closer, just to be sure," she said, soft and patient.
Apollo nodded and slowly stood up, making her way towards the kneeling twins. As she stepped past Arkon, the Archer turned to watch.
Apollo crouched down in front of Defteros and reached out, taking his chin in her hand. He tensed, ever wary of any physical contact that didn't come from his brother.
Apollo stared intently at him, head cocking faintly to the side before she frowned.
"Look me in the eyes," she ordered, and Defteros looked up nervously, blue eyes meeting gold for a long, tense moment.
Apollo hummed, then let go of Defteros' chin and stood up, moving over to Aspros and crouching down again.
"Your turn, young one," she said, gripping Aspros' chin much the way she had with Defteros.
Aspros was apparently far less inclined to look away than his brother was, but seemed to quickly realize that not doing so was a much more difficult task than he'd expected. Defteros didn't blame his twin. When Apollo had examined him it had felt like the god was looking past his eyes and into his very soul, reading him in a way that made his skin crawl at the feeling of exposure.
Finally Apollo let go of Aspros, making a noise of satisfaction and returning to her throne.
"Your Pope was wrong," she stated bluntly, attention focused primarily on Defteros. "You weren't born under a star of evil."
Defteros' heart stopped, and for a long moment he could only stare at the god sitting calmly on her throne.
"I wasn't?" He finally asked. The very idea was beyond his imagination.
"You were not," Apollo confirmed. "Even if you were, stars do not move that fast. Your brother would also have been born under an evil star."
Defteros glanced at his twin, seeing the look of mixed relief and triumph in his eyes. Aspros had always insisted that Sage had to be lying — or was somehow wrong — but he'd never had proof before.
"That being said," Apollo continued, "You were both born under a second protective star, other than the constellation of Gemini: the star of Ares."
"The star of Ares?" Defteros repeated slowly in confusion.
"Correct," Apollo answered. "Every god has a star by which their fate can be told, the same as any human's fate can be told based on the movement of the constellation they were born under. Ever so rarely, a human can be born under the star of a god, signifying that they have that god's protection. It means both of you are special, beyond being twins born under the sign of Gemini."
It was a strange revelation, and not one Defteros was ready to make anything of yet.
"What does that mean for us then?" Aspros asked, something that sounded a lot like suspicion in his voice.
"It means that by mistreating one of you, Sanctuary's Pope is going against the will of Athena," Apollo told them. "She would never approve of a child born under Ares' star being treated like a monster. The Pope is committing treason, and will need to be stopped. To that end you will be staying here under the protection of the Archers until such a time as the current Pope can be removed and another one put in his place."
It was a weird thing to hear — that Athena would want anyone born under the protection of her greatest rival to be kept safe — but Defteros couldn't bring himself to think that Apollo was lying.
It was good though. They would be safe with the Archers, and maybe, just maybe, that would be enough for Aspros to smile again.
"For now, we'll find somewhere for you to stay while we figure out what the next step is," Apollo told them.
Arkon stood up. "They can stay with me," he said. "There's plenty of space in my rooms for two more people."
Apollo nodded. "Get them settled, then come back. We have other matters to discuss."
Arkon bowed and turned, beckoning the twins to follow him.
Defteros watched as Aspros dropped onto the bed with a shaky sigh.
Arkon had shown them to a room quite a distance from the hall where they had met Apollo and Artemis, along a path filled with so many twists and turns that Defteros wasn't sure he'd ever remember it. Archer's Cove was huge, and he had no idea how he'd ever learn to find his way around.
The room was simple, with two beds and two small chests most likely meant for clothes and other belongings, and nothing else except a door that probably led to Arkon's bedroom.
Arkon has said the room would be theirs for the duration of their stay, however long that might be. It was small, but they'd be together, and that was what mattered.
"Defteros," Aspros interrupted the younger twin's thoughts.
Defteros turned to look at his brother, only to see Aspros watching him tiredly. His older brother held out his arms, and Defteros didn't hesitate to go to him, settling down on the bed and letting his twin hug him.
"I was worried," Aspros confessed. "If Arkon hadn't decided to help us, we wouldn't have stood a chance against three Silver Saints. We weren't going to make it to Delphi."
"But you were willing to fight them anyway?" Defteros clarified.
Aspros' arms tightened around him. "I said 'we'. You could have made it, if I kept them busy for long enough."
"But you know I wouldn't leave you behind!" Defteros protested, pulling away from his twin to stare at him. "You've never left me behind, so I won't leave you!"
Aspros sighed. "I know, and it's ridiculous because it would have gotten both of us killed."
"But it didn't," Defteros said. "Someone helped us, and now we have a safe place to stay."
"At least for now," Aspros murmured. "Who knows what will happen in a few months when Apollo realizes that Pope Sage has too strong a hold over Sanctuary. We won't be able to unseat him that easily."
"You need to stop worrying," Defteros told his twin gently. He didn't blame Aspros for worrying, but it had to be exhausting.
"I can't!" Aspros protested, giving Defteros a frustrated look. "If I don't worry about us — about you — who will? We only have each other, Defteros, and I refuse to lose you."
Defteros shook his head, reaching out to cup his brother's face in his hands. "You're not going to lose me," he said, "But you have to have a little faith. Apollo promised to protect us, and to help make Sanctuary safe again, and that has to be enough. Have faith, big brother."
Have faith.
Thanks for reading! If you've got a moment don't hesitate to leave a review, I'd love to hear what you thought.
