Aeternus laid meticulous footsteps through the dew-soaked grass of a newfound valley, constantly fanning heavy mist out of his view. Small, vacant huts of stone loomed for miles in uneven rows, with their thatched, ivy-ridden roofs steadily accumulating mounds of natural debris, their cracked cobblestone pathways slicked with moss, bearing witness to the relentless perpetuity of time. Unfettered by the sorry sight, Aeternus chose to spur himself onward.
The luminant constellations and rubious moon of the Hunter outlined his way with a bloodlust glow as he returned to his search in the disheveled village, sludge drenching the thick robe that was slowly trailing behind his person. Yet, his hope stubbornly remained. All he needed to do was find a worthy apprentice. A worthy human apprentice.
Aeternus’ thoughts quelled as the thick fog momentarily dispersed, a sprinkling of golden dust forming a visible path for him to follow, dissipating as he took new steps onward. Anticipation pulsed through him, quickening his pace.
The fog returned in the vicinity of a dwelling not any different than the others. In fact, it seemed to be the most neglected—the walls sprouted concerningly colorful fungi, and the overgrown shrubs mused tales of abandonment, starkly contrasting Aeternus’ grandeur. Though, after having spent long enough in the mortal world, he’d begun to observe a correlation of quality people within quite unkempt places. Certainly, the same could be said about the occupant of this chosen residence.
He glanced into the grime-stained window of the feeble hut, where an equally feeble-looking child sat beneath a worn blanket draped over her slumped shoulders, drawing with a stick on a floor of dry, compressed dirt. Sprawled around her pale frame was strikingly long hair, the rich color of the onyx that painted the night sky. She, in her youth, wasn’t quite what he was hoping for, but his eager curiosity at having finally found his new disciple took over from there.
Aeternus knocked gently on the arched wooden door, which, in return, wafted a strangely aged fragrance. There was no answer, so he struck slightly harder, with his staff, and he could hear tentative movement from inside the home. He waited patiently for the girl to come to the door, but she first peered through the window, flashing idyllic navy eyes through thick eyelashes. She was oblivious to Aeternus’ arrival, even after her eyes darted in all directions, so she cracked the door open.
The girl scrunched her face from the instant greeting of harsh winds, trembling in her fragility and thinness. Aeternus offered her his thick woolen shawl, but after a short glance at it, she closed her eyes and shook her head. He knelt down to place it carefully around her shoulders anyway, and she bowed her head a fraction of an inch as a pleased gesture.
“Where are your parents, dear child?” Aeternus asked, tilting his head with concern. “Surely you aren’t out here on your own?”
“My parents…,” the girl echoed softly, her voice sounding bitterly mournful. She switched her gaze from her bare feet to Aeternus’s tawny eyes, flecked with subtle gold. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what that is. I have not owned many things for a long time. Are you bringing me to my parents?”
Aeternus’s eyes softened, melancholy veiling his expression, conveying his inevitable response. Nerida mirrored his sentiment with a solemn nod, inviting an interminable silence to hang, one that encapsulated their shared grief in its totality. Her slender fingers began to trace patterns in the dirt as she reminisced of the simultaneous blessings and the curses that life had tossed her way. Eventually, her careful strokes and swirls formed characters. A name and a title. Nerida, Serenity of the Sea.
“That’s a wonderful name,” Aeternus said with a smile, and she managed a weak smile in return.
“It is…,” she replied whimsically, “do you have a name like mine, sir?”
“My name is Aeternus, the Sustainer of Time,” he informed her, his gentle voice carrying the weight of eons. “I hope to only bring you blessings in the time we spend together. Nerida, have you ever had a home?”
After letting the question linger in the air for a moment, she mused, “home?” while looking to the sky, still as fog-strewn as before. “No, I don’t think so. I’ve been moving around far too often. I forget where it is I started, but I know that you have brought me here. Time has brought me here.”
“Do you feel as if time is your blessing or your curse?” Aeternus asked after a beat of silence. Time—such a fleeting and precious concept—was the highest gift he could ever offer to a human. Yet he was no stranger to taking his own days for granted. Endless days, at that. Any mortal of his upbringing would have to realize the ambiguity of his creation to the same degree. Could a child recognize this? When given a life with such constraint yet such endless possibility, what will come about in years cultivated by a god?
“Well,” Nerida answered thoughtfully, “I feel blessed to still be here. I don’t remember how much time I’ve spent alone, but I’ve learned to enjoy my own company and work with what’s here. I miss what I could have had, I guess. Time has given me many things, and it has also taken many things from me. Like my family and the home you asked me about. I’m sure I had all of those things once… I’m not sure what happened…”
“Would you like to come with me and find a real home?” Aeternus offered after her voice faded out into deep thought, reaching out his hand. Nerida looked at it doubtfully and reached her arm out halfway, hovered her palm over his, then made eye-contact for validity. In the gravity of the moment, he couldn’t do much more than nod her on. After a second, she placed her hand in his, and both clasped on tightly. “That’s good. Any final thoughts?”
Nerida glanced up at Aeternus and studied him again, carefully, this time. Past his soft satin robes, delicately embroidered with notoriously regal emblems, and past the tiny jewels glistening in their respective carvings on his staff, she saw an eternal heart and a wise mind, ready to teach her that she truly deserved all that she had lost.
“I trust you, Aeternus,” she decided with a spark of confidence in her tone, and the two of them shared a smile of relief. “Show me home.”