Kratos's Arc

Chapter 9 of 11

Three siblings stood under Kratos's banner. One did not. Zelus served the war god still, and Zelus would not walk into any room where Bia stood. So Kratos went to him alone. He found his brother at the war god's shrine, sharpening a blade he did not need. Zelus was the Minor God of Rivalry. He never followed. He raced ahead and dared others to catch him. Zelus did not look up. "You want me under your flag. Save your breath. You knelt to the Titan who ate his own children." "I bound him," Kratos said. "He wants no rescue. I have his word in stone." "Words in stone." Zelus finally lifted his eyes. "You'd have me trust a scratch on a disc? No. I trust what I see with my own eyes. Take me to him. Show me the chains. Then maybe I'll believe you didn't sell us to a Titan." There lay the trap. Kratos owed a debt to the Titan-blooded elder. She had let him build his faction on one law: never move toward freeing Kronos. Marching a proud, hot-blooded god down to the shadow-prison could look like a step toward the cage. If she saw it that way, she could tear his whole faction apart. But if Kratos refused Zelus, he lost his last brother, and with him the ARC GOAL Zeus demanded. Kratos chose. "Come. But you follow my rules below." They climbed down to the great bronze archway. Red light glowed in the seams of the stone. Molten cracks ran across the floor. Zelus stopped at the threshold. Even he went quiet before that door. "Elder," Kratos called into the dark. "I hold to my oath. I bring my brother only to look. Not to open. Witness it." For a long moment nothing answered. Then a low voice rolled up from the earth itself. "I hear you, God of Strength. I am watching. One step toward the lock and our bargain breaks." Zelus's head snapped toward the sound. Kratos held out his arm, barring him. "You wanted to see. See from here." He called down. Kronos answered, chained, his beard white as ash, his wrists raw against the iron. "Who is the new one?" the Titan asked. "My brother," Kratos said. "Tell him what you told the others." "I asked for no key," Kronos said. "Only to say sorry to my daughter. I am done with thrones." He rattled his chains, slow and heavy. "You see the weight I wear. Does it look like freedom is coming?" Zelus stared at the raw wrists, the iron, the old broken god. His jaw worked. He looked at Kratos, then at the dark where the elder's voice had been. "You kept your oath," Zelus said. "Even now. Even to win me." He stepped back from the archway. "Fine. I'll stand with you. But not beside Bia. Not yet." Kratos took it. Four siblings answered to him now. But one still would not share a room with another.