Bellona rubbed her chin deep in thought as she processed what the crying Iris told her. She watched Iris rub tears from her eyes in a vain attempt to calm herself back down and Bellona couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Being in Anoron’s presence is bad enough; adding Arylos to that mix would only be more taxing. The Titan and the Templarian king had a long and bloody history that Bellona had to remind herself that she was the only one Iris knew who knows of their history. As much as Arylos likes to stylize himself as different from Anoron, they both share the same vital flaw; not telling the whole truth at the start.

“This is a lot to think about,” Bellona said with a deep sigh while moving her hand to rub the back of her head. “And who knows what would happen if he found Eir here. I don’t think he knows she’s still alive and that’s something I never considered.”

“What do you mean?” Iris asked while sniffling.

“Ack, never mind that; there’s something more pressing I need to address,” Bellona said while waving Iris off. Before Iris could ask for a follow up, Bellona gave Iris a solid chop on her head, making the girl squeal and fall to the ground as she grabbed her head in pain.

“The hell was that for?!” Iris demanded while groaning in pain.

“That’s for standing up to Anoron,” Bellona cautioned with a serious face. “You don’t just tell him no; the only reason why his enemies on the council don’t openly oppose him is because they know he will wipe the floor with them.”

“Yeah, well he was being a big asshole!” Iris exclaimed while climbing back up to her feet.

“I’m not denying that, but you are quite honestly lucky that you are still alive,” Bellona said while trying not to raise her voice. “I’m being serious with you here; when my ancestors met him, he was the only being that was quite seriously close to making our race extinct.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Iris asked while sitting back on the bench, still rubbing her sore head.

“Anoron Sarandiel is an ancient being, older than any of us,” Bellona explained in a soft voice. “Back in those days, we were what Arylos calls a ‘warrior race’. Basically, an empire that spanned worlds with a military force that would make other warrior races run in fear; it’s how we annexed systems like Yggdrasil and Tengoku and how countless others worship us as gods. Take out the genocidal mania and we were like Reig to you to everyone else.”

“And that’s when Anoron took the throne?” Iris asked, curious about Templarius.

“Well that’s the thing; he put a stop to that,” Bellona explained with a sigh. “He was already ancient and survived countless wars by the time our ancestors met him. When they did, they attempted to capture him and their battle was legendary. In the end, our ancestors decided that he was the perfect warrior and knelt to him.”

“They literally surrendered to a foreign monster,” Iris said with a sarcastic chuckle.

“Not as foreign as you think,” Bellona said while trying to find the right way to explain Templarian history and genetics. “His lineage traces back to the first divine of Templarius; the first of us to achieve divinity.” She then sighed and rubbed her eyes, cursing Arylos for not teaching Iris. “Let me put it this way, you know the High Houses, right?”

“You’ve mentioned them; the royal families of Templarius,” Iris said, struggling to recall her conversation from over six years ago.

“Exactly, the High Houses are descendants from the first Templarian divines,” Bellona explained while leaning back. “We were not born divine; we evolved it over time and to this day, not every Templarian is like Anoron or even Odin. But each Templarian does share traits like our strength, immortality, and reincarnation. None of that would be possible were it not for the first divines so we call them the Primes or the Progenitors. Over time, they passed their divinity on through their bloodline and that forms the High Houses with members of which carrying varying amounts of that blood.”

“Then where does Anoron fit in?” Iris asked, feeling her mind starting to strain to comprehend it all.

“Well, the original Anoron decided that his bloodline would not be based on blood,” Bellona explained. “He was the strongest of the Progenitors and had apparently gazed into time itself. So the original Anoron decided that when he died, his soul would swim through the sea of time. As a result, he would reincarnate himself into ‘the worthy’ whatever he meant by that. Basically, Anoron would disappear and reappear as someone with his same power, knowledge, and memories.”

“Basically ensuring he would never die,” Iris said aloud while trying to imagine a soul that would constantly reincarnate. “So then at some point, Orion became ‘worthy’ somehow and became Anoron.”

“Exactly!” Bellona praised with a clap of her hands. “So our ancestors didn’t surrender to a foreign power; they bowed to their ancient king and let him retake his throne.”

“Wouldn’t that make him kind of like a Titan though?” Iris wondered while rubbing her head. “I mean, Titans are born from the essence of chaos; that’s how Arylos was born at least since he is fire in all forms. Since Anoron is reincarnating himself through time, wouldn’t that make him like Arylos?”

“That’s why the two get along sometimes, and it’s also why they don’t,” Bellona explained with a sad sigh. “Anoron isn’t a Titan exactly, but he’s damn close; probably the closest there will ever be again.”

Iris slowly came to terms with their rivalry as she began to see Arylos’s side. “Arylos wants to keep Anoron from repeating his mistakes; he sees a lot of himself in Anoron.”

“That probably adds to it,” Bellona said with a sigh as she turned away, deep in thought. “I always considered that since Anoron is close to becoming a Titan, that would give Arylos a way out; a way so another Titan can wander reality and he can die.”

“Only a Titan can kill another Titan,” Iris said softly, remembering what Arylos told her.

“Exactly, and doing so would snuff the last Elder Titan and I don’t think that sits right with Anoron,” Bellona said with a concerned sigh. “That would leave Anoron to carry down the bloodline of a Titan, if there’s any left for him to.”

“Like how you carry the bloodline of a Progenitor?” Iris asked, boggled by the idea.

Bellona laughed and shook her head. “Only a little. My parents carry more of my ancestors blood than I do, but I do belong to the house of Nyx.”

Iris rubbed her chin before she came to a realization that chilled her. “Wait, Arylos removing your wings removed that divinity from you; is that why you don’t carry that bloodline anymore?”

Bellona sighed and rested a hand on Iris’s shoulder. “Precisely, and that’s exactly why Arylos is not able to restore my divinity without taking it from someone else; he quite literally purged that blood from me.”

“I’m sorry,” Iris said softly while lowering her head.

“Don’t worry about it; you weren’t in control of your husband at the time,” Bellona said while waving Iris off. “Which reminds me,” Bellona said with a glare before suddenly chopping Iris’s head again, sending Iris to the ground as she cried out in pain while rolling around on the ground. “That’s for being an absolute cold bitch to your husband.”

“He was an ass too, just like Anoron!” Iris complained loudly while holding her throbbing head.

“DOESN’T MATTER!” Bellona shouted coldly and struck Iris again as Iris called out in pain again. “Don’t think that I forgot that you straight up trashed his emotions! The man is already cold and emotionless; don’t kick him when he decides to feel something!”

“It’s weird though; he could love me like a normal husband!” Iris complained before Bellona suddenly grabbed her by her collar and dragged her back up to her feet.

“Don’t you get it that he is?!” Bellona said with fury while resisting the urge to slap Iris. “He loves you in a way that even he doesn’t understand because he’s never loved someone like you before! You are the one person who showed him kindness and love and it makes him feel something for the first time in his miserable emotionless eternal life!”

“But he’s so possessive; he’s like an animal,” Iris complained in a soft voice.

“Because you are the one fucking good thing in his life and he doesn’t want to lose you!” Bellona said while shaking Iris violently. “You are his family, the only family he’ll have; even I didn’t get that luxury until you came along! So yes, he’s possessive and protective, but because he treasures you!”

Iris clenched her teeth and pushed herself away from Bellona before covering her mouth as she began to cough again. However, as the coughing wracked her body, she felt the strength in her legs fail her and she hit the ground, coughing louder until her head stung. Bellona watched in concern as she knelt down to help Iris and she could see clotted blood cover her sleeve as she coughed. As her coughing died down, Bellona snatched Iris’s arm and examined the bloodstain all the while Iris looked at her with weak eyes and wheezing in her breath as she cleared her throat.

“Fucking hell, already?” Bellona said while examining Iris and pulling her close while pulling a sash from her robe and began cleaning Iris’s face. As she wiped away drops of blood and tears from the coughing and mucous from her runny nose, she felt a stinging pain in her chest. “How frequent are these getting?”

“Usually if I exert myself,” Iris confessed while taking deep breaths. “It feels like my chest is tightening, like I have a sash that’s too tight.”

“Have you spoken to someone about this? Like Arylos?” Bellona asked while putting the cloth away and gently holding Iris’s hand.

“I don’t want him worrying about me; it will pass eventually,” Iris said while sitting up straight on the ground.

“No Iris, it won’t,” Bellona said mournfully as she struggled with the words to tell Iris. She stammered until she finally decided not to sugar coat it. “You’re dying Iris,” she said in a sorrowful voice.

“Eh? What do you mean?” Iris asked in disbelief as soft coughs plagued her for a moment.

“The radiation when you and Arylos went out into the city; this is latent radiation sickness,” Bellona said in a slow realization.

“The hell does that mean?” Iris asked while rubbing her temples to ease the migraine.

Bellona stammered as she looked around, hoping to find the right words. “So, you know the radiation coming from Vortex’s corpse? The poison Arylos told you about?” Bellona waited for a nod from Iris before continuing. “This is how it shows. If it doesn’t kill you now, it kills you later by giving you an illness like this. Your body weakens, you cough blood, and your body slowly deteriorates until you finally die.”

“I’ll be fine,” Iris said while waving off Bellona and trying to look for the strength to get back on her feet. “Arylos said it would cut my lifespan in half at worst so this is probably a part of it.”

“No, if that was the case, you wouldn’t have these symptoms now,” Bellona corrected while shaking her head. “If it’s starting now, you may only have a couple of years left, if that.”

The words hung in the air as Iris could no longer deny it. She looked down to her bloodstained sleeve, realizing that it was a reminder that she was running out of time. That can’t be right, she told herself as she tried to find any way that Bellona could be wrong. “A-Arylos healed me in the past; he could probably do it again,” she said while glancing around nervously.

“Well for starters he might be able to if he wasn’t also suffering,” Bellona said in an angry tone that caught Iris’s attention. “He’s weakened, but have you ever noticed that he’s not healing right? Sure his magic is coming back but his body won’t heal. He might just be suffering from the same illness and is trying to fight it off himself.”

Iris laughed nervously as her morbid mind began to understand the situation she was in. “W-Well, then we’ll be fine for now, right? It’ll kill us later so we have time together.”

“Except you told him that he doesn’t love you,” Bellona said softly, silencing Iris as she looked to the ground in horror. “He’s keeping himself alive for you, going through a lot of pain as his body rots from the inside out just to keep you from being lonely. And then you break his heart by telling him that everything he’s doing is not out of love, or at least not love you want.”

Iris felt tears well up as she turned towards Bellona, understanding why Arylos was openly furious with her. For the first time, he was angry at her and she began to understand why. Bellona could see the pain in Iris’s eyes, seeing that she was finally understanding her husband. “He’s trying to be the best he can for you,” Bellona continued in a soft voice while taking Iris’s hand. “He’s not perfect and he knows that, but he does care for you immensely and he loves you in a way that only a Titan knows how to. For the first time, he felt something warm and loving and now it’s cold and painful.”

Iris lowered her head as she began to cry again. “I-I basically took his love for me and turned it back into pain,” she said softly as she began to clutch at her chest, feeling the burning sword through her heart that Arylos felt in that moment.

Bellona sighed and rubbed Iris’s back in an attempt to comfort her. “You see, he’s not being entirely unreasonable with denying Anoron. He only wants to protect you for as long as he has left before he is cut off from you forever.”

Iris rubbed her eyes as she tried to collect herself. “He won’t forgive me now; not after what I said,” she said in a soft whimper.

“Oh come on, do you really have that little faith in him?” Bellona said with a soft smile. “Trust me; he loves you too much to hate you, contrary to what you thought a little while ago.”

“What do I even say to him?” Iris said while flailing her arm in defeat as a fit of crying took over her before Bellona held her close and rubbed her back. Iris clung to Bellona as she wondered what she could say to Arylos to make it all better.

“‘I love you and I’m sorry’ would be a start,” Bellona added with a warm smile and a laugh.