Darkness.
The first thing Tithonus felt was warmth, not sunlight, but something deeper. Flickering. Gentle. He opened his eyes to a dim world of shifting shadows and orange glow.
A cave.
The ceiling arched low, rough stone blackened with smoke. The only source of light was a bonfire crackling beside him, spitting sparks that danced like lost stars. The world beyond the cave's mouth was veiled in mist. A frozen night. Permanent dawn. Just as she had told him.
Tithonus shifted, his body aching but intact. He turned his head.
A man sat beside the fire. Broad-shouldered, middle-aged, with arms like carved granite and skin marked by the years. A battered coat hung from his frame like a cloak of old battles, and his beard was the color of smoke and ash.
"You're awake," the man said, not looking up. His voice was rough, like gravel over time-worn stone. "That's good. Thought you were already halfway to Hades."
Tithonus coughed, trying to speak. "Wh...where...?"
"Cave," the man grunted. "You were lucky. Got yourself tangled in a nest of Skoliomorphs. Bastards nearly drained you dry. If I'd been a few minutes late, you'd have been food."
"Skoliomorphs?" Tithonus repeated, the word unfamiliar.
"Desert centipedes. Ten feet long, armored like war chariots, poison in their legs. Nasty ones. Especially these days."
The man leaned back, pulling a hunk of dry meat from a pack. "They thrive in the dark. World's been perfect for them ever since the sky broke."
Tithonus's eyes flicked to the cave entrance. Mist swirled outside. And beyond it, the faint arc of the sun a disc in motion, yet without light.
"Ten years," the man said, seeing where he looked. "Ten damn years since Eos died. Since the sky froze at dawn."
He sighed. "Sun keeps moving like it should. But no warmth. No light. Just… this." He gestured at the half-lit haze. "A ghost of a world."
Tithonus was silent. The fire popped. A memory flickered in the flames Eos, brushing her hand across his withered cheek, whispering of the dagger's secret. Of what it could do. And what it would cost her.
He clenched his fists.
The man stirred. "Sleep. We'll move when the sun's in the eastern arc. Still dangerous, but most of the creatures out there… they're scared of it, even like this."
Tithonus watched him lie down, arms crossed like a soldier's rest. Within seconds, the man was asleep.
Tithonus stared at the fire until sleep took him, too.
He awoke to the sound of shifting boots.
The fire had dwindled, leaving embers glowing faintly in the ash. Outside, the mist remained, but there was motion in the air, subtle and watchful
The man stood at the cave entrance, strapping a pack to his shoulders. Tithonus rose, his body still sluggish but his mind clear.
He stepped out.
And gasped.
Before him loomed a towering mountain, it was massive, unnatural in this barren desert. Jagged ridges, sheer cliffs. It looked ancient. Out of place. A monument to something the world had forgotten.
The man was standing beside a boulder nearly twice his height, muttering as he braced his shoulder against it. Not to roll it, but to steady it, as if it were a companion he leaned on.
Tithonus approached.
"I never got to say thank you," he said. "For saving me. I'm… Tithonus."
The man paused.
Then laughed.
"Been centuries since anyone asked me my name," he said, still chuckling.
He turned, grinning through his beard.
"Name's Sisyphus."