The day the gods died

It had been a difficult couple of days. Ever since Atharva had returned from his trip Ceros had kept to his room. The young blonde had expected to come back and have a willing menckenian on his hands, however had been surprised when the menckenian in question had gone to long lengths to avoid his company. It was enough to make Atharva frustrated. Thankfully the gods had taken pity on their servant because Atharva was so busy that he didn’t have time to dwell very much on the situation. Ceros on the other hand must be very happy since this prevented Atharva from bothering him. That was not the only thing that bothered him it was the way the menckenian had looked when he had finally demanded to see Ceros. The youth looked as if he suffered from a fever, his skin was flushed but his body trembled. Fengdar had been cleaning his body with a wet cloth trying to cool down the menckenian’s body. Atharva had been furious that this had been kept from him but Fengdar had said that Ceros didn’t want him worried, menckenians did not like to have an audience when they fell ill. The parsifalian did not look happy but he tried to remain calm in the face of Atharva’s outburst. It still made the prince blush whenever he remembered.
A knock at his door brought him back from his musings. One of the guards outside of his study opened the door soundlessly to announce Lord Dorias. Atharva nodded absently as he turned his gaze back to the papers he had been reading before becoming distracted.
“I see you are still working. Is it really necessary or are you trying to keep yourself from worrying?”
Atharva frowned before turning his verdant gaze to his friend. Dorias looked happy with himself, Atharva guessed that having a beautiful blonde to wake up to could make even the perpetual grouchy become happy.
“Not now Dorias. These papers are enough to drive a sane man to madness.”
The redhead frowned flicking some hair out of his hazel eyes, “That bad?”
“Yes.”
“Well so just you know, the court is not very pleased with the treaty you have forged with Balin. Rumors have spread that Balin is just using Vedas to protect itself and will not honor their side of the agreement.”
Atharva lifted his gaze from his papers blond bangs covering most of his delicate face. Dorias almost smiled at how young the Prince looked.
“That is preposterous.”
Dorias playfully scrunched nose before picking up a figurine in the form of a dog. The pale hands held the figure between them before sighing, “Atharva you know I love you but sometimes I just want to trample you. The members of your court are hypocrites; you know this as well as I do. They will side with you in public and drag your name through the mud when you are not present. Fickle creatures they are.”
Atharva’s mouth twitched in barely concealed amusement, “So am I right in guessthatthat you are not part of this hypocritical, backstabbing, and fickle court?”
Dorias glared, “Sometimes your highness finds everything increasingly amusing.”
“No, you are just amusing.”


Fengdar was not happy. After having to watch Ceros day and night for the past week it was starting to wear thin on the blonde. That was without counting that he had to warm Dorias sheets on a daily basis. That man had more stamina than anyone Fengdar had ever met before.
Ceros had spent most of the time delirious while he mumbled nonsense. It was too fast for the parsifalian to catch all of it. It was getting old, when he finally thought the fever broke there would be another fever to deal with. It was as if the menckenian had been poisoned with the way his body reacted. A low moan brought Fengdar’s attention back to the problem at hand. If the menckenian didn’t get better soon no matter what the latter thought Fengdar was calling the healer.
“Ceros darling, can you hear me?”
Ceros gave a small moan before turning his head toward the sound of Fengdar’s voice. Extending a pale hand, the blonde started brushing out raven colored hair out of the menckenian’s forehead. Something was wrong the blonde was sure of it. The problem was that Fengdar didn’t know whether the fever was just something all menckenians went through after having sex or not. Ceros was never lucid enough to explain and the only one that might know would be the Prince or his friend Dorias. As much as Fengdar loved sleeping with Dorias he didn’t trust the redhead to keep any secrets from his friend.
“Ceros I need you to talk to me. Can you understand that?”
Ceros mumbled in his sleep, it was the same as it had been all the week, “Jains…” Fengdar sighed quietly lifting his hand to brush hair air out of his eyes. He was so tired of this, fear nagging at him that perhaps he was hurting Ceros more than helping him.
“Fengdar…call the healer…”
Fengdar was so startled that he almost dropped the water bowl in his hand. Ceros eyes were unfocused but that wasn’t what attracted Fengdar’s attention, the fact that they were a bright yellow did. They looked like the eyes of a mountain lion.
“Ceros?”
Ceros looked wildly around the room before returning his gaze back to the blonde. He breathed deeply before reaching a hand to grab hold of violet robes as if Fengdar wasn’t paying him all his attention already.
“I’m changing…I can feel it…”
Blue eyes widened. Fengdar had thought that Ceros had finished changing with the way the latter’s body had been acting. Now Ceros was saying that he was about to start changing…Maybe sleeping with the Prince had been a mistake.
“I…I’ve never felt so awful.”
“Okay, “ said the blonde dipping the cloth he was holding in cool water before placing it on the other’s forehead. “Do you want the Prince here?”
Golden eyes snapped back open in fear, “No! He cannot, nobody can…I’m supposed to be with my mate…in Mencken…not here trapped. The gods are punishing me…”
”Okay, okay. Do you want me to stay here?”
Ceros nodded before a sound that resembled a sob escaped his throat.
“Don’t worry we’ll get through this. You’re not going to die”
Ceros smiled ruefully before sinking into blessed oblivion.