“Anoron…Sarandiel?” Iris asked softly while coming to terms with who she was looking at, all the while the Templarian High King laughed in a deep mechanical voice that pulled at her instincts. “How can that be? He looks like an Eikon; not a Templarian.”

“There are more races than just you carbon-based humanoid lifeforms,” Anoron said with a stern growling voice, implying a warning for Iris. “Do you have any right to judge me when you fornicate with a Titan?”

Iris silenced herself and tried to keep the blood from rushing to her cheeks. She quickly shook her head and regained her focus. “But you’re a machine just like an Eikon; there’s no way you’re Templarian.”

“How astute of you to rely on physical traits,” Anoron said sarcastically while shaking his head. “I am in fact not Templarian, but a race from the world Semigon.”

Iris chuckled softly as she became more confused than before. “But how–”

Before Iris could say anything further, Anoron stole the words from her mouth. “‘How can you be the king of Templarius when you’re not Templarian?’” Iris’s voice sounded from Anoron’s throat as his eyes shone a bright white while recanting the words before returning to their original blue glow. “Yet you are Kaiyumian with a Templarian king,” Anoron said in his own voice sarcastically before turning towards Arylos. “How much longer must I tolerate this questioning? I have more important matters to attend to,” he said to Arylos, all but ignoring Iris.

“Honey, that’s enough,” Arylos said in a stern voice while waving for Iris to calm down once more. “And be mindful of what you say around him; it might backfire on you.”

Iris scoffed as she looked back at the Templarian king. “Don’t–”

Anoron instantly turned back towards Iris and growled as his eyes once again shone a bright white. “‘Don’t patronize me; I’m not a child,’” Iris’s voice once again rang out from Anoron’s throat as he eyed her with his burning white eyes. “‘Right now, as far as I’m concerned, he’s the enemy here; if you won’t do anything about it, I will,’” As quickly as his eyes changed to white, Anoron’s eyes changed back to blue and he let out a deep growling laugh. “Do tell me exactly what you will do, young Iris,” Anoron teased with an entertained smile that exposed his metal teeth and mechanical mouth.

“Iris, enough,” Arylos said in a deep voice that made the hair on the back of Iris’s neck stand up. She wanted to resist yet Arylos watched her with a burning light in his eyes that warned her to back down. She lowered her head and quieted herself as she racked her brain with how Anoron was able to predict– no, mimic what she was about to say before she said it almost perfectly.

“Yavai’nkho,” Anoron said under his breath and the words began to tingle in the back of Iris's mind before Anoron turned his attention back to Arylos. He then reached for the bottle he brought with him and pulled the cork off as Moviron silently placed four clay cups on the table as Anoron poured a scarlet red liquid from the bottle into each cup.

Arylos and Anoron watched each other silently as Anoron put the cork back on the bottle and set the bottle back down. As the silence passed, Anoron turned back towards Iris and lifted one of the cups and moved it towards Iris but Arylos grabbed the cup from Anoron and set it back down, keeping it away from Iris.

Anoron scoffed as he looked back towards Arylos with a sly smile. “Y’drahesta hamun kae,” Anoron said under his breath as he lifted the glass near him and examined the liquid inside before glancing back up at Arylos. “I’m sure you know why I’m here, Auer’makyr, if you have been paying attention to my letters and words.”

Arylos grunted under his breath as he rested his arms on the table. “You mean Odin?”

“I mean all of it,” Anoron corrected while swirling the liquid in his cup. “Baldr, Odin, Vortex, Nerseis–”

“You know about Nerseis?” Arylos asked in an accusing growl.

Anoron caught himself and laughed under his breath while shaking his head. “And you warned your woman about how her words would backfire,” he admitted while taking a drink from the cup and Iris watched the liquid pour down his mechanical gullet into the machinery within him. “I have had my Seekers tracking young Nerseis since the two of you clashed three millennia ago. It is unfortunate what happened to him and how he became an attack vector for the Eikons, but he is only one of many.”

“So you knew the Eikons dug him up,” Arylos said with a deep growl.

“That was where I was blinded; my Seeker that had been watching him went silent a few months before Nerseis resurfaced at the Khymr inn near Solun,” Anoron explained, once again swirling the remaining liquid in his cup. “When he did, I found my Seeker, or at least the parts of him that were left to identify him.”

“The Seeker was killed?” Arylos asked in a softer voice.

Anoron nodded and looked back down to his cup. “Yeah,” he said softly in an informal tone while finishing the liquid in his cup. Even Iris could tell that something unsettled him about that thought. “So you’d forgive me for my…ack, what’s the word; korosjhal.”

Arylos recognized the Templarian word as his expression softened. “‘Desperation’,” Arylos translated aloud as he looked down at the cup of liquid, finally debating taking the gesture. “I thought you cast Odin out; what happened since then?”

Anoron let out a hissing sigh as he looked around, watching for eavesdroppers before coming closer towards Arylos. “I did that to keep the fighting away from Templarius, but Odin is gathering his forces for war. He’s calling in any and all favors he has, many of them not Asgardian nor even Yggdrasilian in any way.”

“You mean Eikonic?” Iris cut in, asking the obvious question.

Anoron turned towards Iris and nodded slowly before returning his gaze to Arylos. “He’s binding anyone who owes him debts, willingly and otherwise.”

“Does that mean Odin’s an Eikon?” Iris asked while turning towards Arylos.

“Unlikely; half of the Yggdrasilian realms would erupt in chaos,” Moviron cut in with his response, catching Iris off guard. “Asgard is the only realm loyal to him; the others are either enemies, slaves, or arrogant to Ragnarok. If Odin was turned into an Eikon, it would unite his slave realms with his enemies.”

“Not to mention Thor and Vidharr, Odin’s remaining sons,” Anoron said in a cautious voice that hummed like a growling wolf. “Since Baldr was taken to Vanaheim, Vidharr has been scouring the realm and killing any who crosses his path. Thor on the other hand, Thor is a separate problem entirely.”

“What about Loki? Where is he in all of this?” Arylos asked in confusion.

“If I knew, I would feel a lot better,” Anoron said in a disappointed growl accompanied by mechanical clicks deep in his throat. “Loki has been practically invisible from my sight along with Thor’s sons.”

“Whatever those three are doing, I guarantee it’s for Odin so it can’t be good,” Moviron added, burdened with worry as he began stroking his beard.

Arylos absorbed the information and lifted the cup Anoron offered him, recognizing the ancient Titanic custom Arylos taught the high king. He knew that if Anoron offered him this drink, he wanted something from Arylos. The Titan considered Anoron’s mannerisms, his desperation, and his formal use of the Vlajhilsen name in the Templarian speech; he decided to give him a chance. “What do you need from me?” Arylos asked, knowing that he will have to ponder the Templarian’s offer.

Anoron sat back and rested his hands on the table and held his hands together. “You are the only one with the strength and knowledge to combat the Eikons. I may have military might, but when it comes to rooting out their corruption, you are the one I must rely on.”

“You want me to kill the Eikons that trouble you?” Arylos asked rhetorically with a deep growl.

“No, I want you to point at the Eikons so that my people can kill them,” Anoron corrected while waving his hands. “You don’t need to fight or bleed; we will do the fighting, I just need you to help me find and purge these monsters from my kingdom.”

“It will also help Kaiyumi,” Moviron added as he lifted up his cup of wine. He then drank the entire cup and set it back down on the table before looking back towards Arylos. “They have already attacked my nation twice, that I know of. At the very least you can protect our home against these monsters.”

Arylos nodded in agreement, finally hearing an offer that he could agree with. Yet he could not bring himself to trust Anoron. “Yggdrasil isn’t yours, so what value do you get out of war with them?” Arylos asked, beginning to find Anoron’s half truths.

“Stopping a war with me,” Anoron answered in a tone that even Iris could hear his desperation in. “My Templarians want nothing to do with the Eikons and they tire of the lies and threat of war. If I have to take the initiative, I will to protect my people.”

Arylos swirled the wine in his cup as he glanced over at Iris who looked back at him with concern in her eyes. Hundreds of calculations ran through his head in a single moment as he considered what Anoron would ask of him, yet all of his questions were inconclusive with one simple fact.

Arylos would have to fight no matter what Anoron promised.

Arylos sighed and set the cup down, letting out a deep sigh. He looked back up at Anoron and before he could reject, he felt Iris set her hand on his forearm. Arylos looked back down and saw Iris give him a familiar expression; she was worried for him. The Titan felt conflicted as he remembered what Bellona told him; he would have to choose between leaving Iris behind to protect her, or staying by her side as countless die. What was the value of millions of lives compared to the value of Iris’s life?

Nothing.

“I’m done,” Arylos said in a low growl as he looked back at Anoron. “I’m done with the war, the fighting, the death. They’re your problem.”

“Arylos, hold on,” Iris added in a soft voice.

“No, I don’t care,” Arylos said to Anoron, cutting Iris off with a deepening growl. “You will not ask me to give up my family for your people who have done nothing for me. You said it yourself; you have the military to do it, then do it.”

“Arylos, let’s not be rash about this,” Anoron cut in with a soft voice.

“No, you want to be like me, right?” Arylos said with a sarcastic laugh as his anger began to resurface. “You think you can handle protecting Reality on your own? You really think you can do what I have done? Now’s your chance to prove yourself.” Arylos looked down and lifted up the cup of wine and held it to Anoron’s face. “You even give me the token gestures of my people; if you think you’re so grown and mature, then you can do this on your own.”

“Arylos, I am begging you,” Anoron said in an attempt to calm the furious Titan.

“And so did I,” Arylos cut in loudly, slamming his fist on the table. “I begged you for your help with Kaiyumi just as you did me with Semigon. For the first time, I wanted to save people, and what did you say to me?” Arylos suddenly threw the cup of wine to the side, breaking the cup against the stone as the wine spilled out like blood. “‘They deserve to die and you deserve to watch’; that’s what you fucking told me.”

Iris let go of Arylos, knowing full well that she did not have control over him anymore as Moviron got up to calm Arylos down, yet Arylos growled and reached out a hand as an invisible force grabbed Moviron by his neck and Iris could only watch as the Kaiyumian king clawed at his throat, desperate for the Titan to calm down.

“So now you get to watch them die,” Arylos said in a deep reverberating growl as his eyes shone with a haunting red light. “You will watch them all wither and die and become the monsters you think I am. I had to sit here and watch my people here waste away and die while you stood by and watched just so you can use it as a bargaining chip. Guess what, it won’t fucking work.”

With a motion of his arm, Arylos threw Moviron to the ground as the Kaiyumian king caught his breath. As soon as Arylos let go, he found a humming and glowing sword against his neck, radiating the heat of a burning sun as it hummed with power. Arylos looked back over to Anoron and saw the Templarian king holding his sword against the Titan’s throat but a look of fear in the king’s mechanical eyes.

“That’s enough, both of you!” Iris shouted, as she jumped up and grabbed Arylos’s arm, pulling him away.

“And who are you to talk to me like that?” Anoron growled, keeping his eyes locked on Arylos.

“Arylos’s wife, that’s who,” Iris said as she pulled Arylos a safe distance away and standing in between the two otherworldly creatures. As Iris stood, she found herself fighting back a coughing fit as her chest heaved from the sudden motion and she felt lightheadedness slam into her. As her legs started to lose her strength, Arylos grabbed her and held her close, standing in between her and Anoron.

“Are you okay?” Arylos whispered softly as he cradled Iris against him.

“I’m fine,” Iris said while choking back coughs. Before Arylos could ask, Iris stood up straight and looked towards Anoron with disdain. “If you are serious about our help, then you will listen to me, do you hear!?” she shouted while clearing her throat.

“I signed for your refuge; do not make me revoke that decision,” Anoron growled while pointing towards Iris with his sword.

“Do that and we won’t help you!” Iris said proudly while crossing her arms.

“As if you would anyway,” Anoron said in a deep growl.

“We are considering helping you,” Iris said, tapping Arylos’s arm to silence him the moment he started to speak. “If you do that again, then we’ll drop your offer. If you put the sword away, we will at least consider your request rather than refusing outright.”

“And what makes you think that I will trust what you have to say, mortal?” Anoron said in a hissing growl as lenses in his blue eyes changed and the blue was outshone by a blood red light.

“Because I love my husband,” Iris answered proudly while pulling Arylos close to her. “The moment he was in danger, I pulled him away and wanted to protect him, even if it was futile. However, for someone who loves his people, you surely didn’t check on one of your own people when he was in danger.”

Anoron watched Iris with burning red eyes that slowly changed back to blue as he repeatedly blinked his eyes. Anoron began to realize that Iris was right; Moviron didn’t get back up when Arylos threw him. Anoron quickly looked to his side and saw Moviron slowly getting back up, coughing for breath as he rubbed his sore neck that was bruised with dark handprints. Before Anoron could ask, Moviron gestured that he was okay as he coughed the pain from his throat.

Anoron slowly looked back towards Arylos and Iris, realizing that his Semigonian instinct took over. Silently, Anoron withdrew his sword and placed it back in the sheath on his back as the mechanical sheath locked the sword back in its proper place.

“Good, now as I said, we will consider your request,” Iris said with a firm nod.

Anoron’s glowing blue eyes danced around as he thought to himself before looking back up at Iris. “Very well, I will wait for your answer,” he said as blue energy began to glow from his body accompanied by a mechanical humming sound that grew louder and higher pitched. Within a moment, the Templarian High King disappeared in a blast of energy that worked up wind.

Arylos, Iris, and Moviron were left staring at each other and the remaining cup of wine on the table; a sign that Anoron will return.