Father

Athan kneeled upon the floor, head pressing to the cold white marble, he dared not look at the man that was sitting in front of him due to fear of what might happen for disrespecting customs.

The man sitting in the chair smirked before speaking once again.

"Raise your head and look at me."

Athan quickly complied looking up at the man, whilst craning his neck for a good view. He was sitting with one of his legs crossed over the other.

The man once again spoke, this time a smirk was no longer resting on his face, instead it had been replaced with what seemed like a cold piece of stone that could not be chipped no matter the climate.

"I shall adopt you, Athan, but before that I must establish a few rules. First, you will never ask of my name, if you do your tongue will be cut, and you shall be chained and locked away for eternity. Second, you will do as I ask, if I require you to fetch water you will fetch water. Third, You are forbidden from stepping inside any religious grounds, no matter the religion. That means that you may not step inside of the pantheon, and that also means that you are not allowed to pray to anyone."

Athan was puzzled, the only rule that felt normal to him was the second one, who wouldn't have their child do chores? Other than that why was he forbidden to ask the name of the man that was now his father? And why was he no longer allowed to be faithful?

All of these question where rolling around in his head, without an answer, right as he went to open his mouth The Man once again spoke.

"Fourth, you may not ask questions about the rules. And finally, Fifth, you will only call me Father, anything else and you shall be lashed a thousand times, do you understand?"

Athan was once again stumped, as his words seemed to be caught inside of his throat, he struggled for a moment before he nodded.

"Yes Father I understand the rules."

Once Athan said those words it was like time stopped, space froze, as if the laws of the world where binding what he had said.

His Father's face finally loosened as he showed a slight smile.

"Very good! My Boy, come, you shall first fetch water every morning at sunrise, and then you shall report to me for lessons."

Athan nodded, then turned his head to the side a bit, like a puppy pondering something

"But F-Father, what are we going to be learning in the lessons?" He stammered as he said Father, still not used to the unfamiliar feeling on his tongue

"Worry not about that, Son! Xenia, get him to his room… Oh! And how could I forget, invite his little sister over!"

A Woman quickly appeared from another room and brought Athan along, Athan pondered along the way, he never recalled mentioning that he had a sister, only that he had stolen for his family.

He quickly cast these thoughts to the back of his mind, excited that he could once again see his little sister, who had fallen ill to an unknown disease.

The Woman that was leading him down the hall had long brunette hair that she let fall to hear waist, she wore a red dress that appeared to be made from the best fabrics that money could buy. Her face was something that had left Athan stammering, and out of breath, she had sharp eyebrows, and a small nose. Her red lips gleamed under the light of the lamps that hung on the sides of the wall.

Athan could not help but imagine what her lipstick would taste like, but was pulled out by her melodious voice that called out to him.

"We are here, Athan." Xenia said as she turned around to look at him, Athan quickly looked to the floor with a red face.

Xenia of course notices this, and let out a smile that could entangle gods and demons alike.

"T-Thank you m'am." Athan quickly opened the door to the room and almost ran inside, as he quickly closed the door behind him.

Athan's red face finally returned to normal when he got inside of his room. He was aghast at how large it was. There must have been enough room for 5 people to sleep comfortably in here.

The walls where made of dark oak wood, that had been polished to almost reflect his image. The floors where made of some type of majestic wood that radiated beauty, and a brown rug made from a bear's hide sat in the center of the room.

On the right side of the room where a couple of book shelves that seemed to be lined with an endless bibliography of knowledge.

Athan who had never even seen more than 5 books in his entire life was speechless. He of course, did not even know how to read, so he was immediately interested, though he was still lost at everything else he saw in the room.

In the center of the room, pushed against the wall was a large king sized bed, that had a large wooden backboard that was scripted with beautiful carvings that seemed to tell the story of a heroic man going on a journey to save his loved one from the afterlife.

The story seemed tragic, and yet beautiful at the same time.

Athan decided to go towards the books first, and see what they where like.

His bare feet tracked across the beautiful wood flooring, as he inched closer to the bookshelf.

The books seemed to have a weird attractive force on him, almost as if they where whispering into his ear to read them, and to be entranced by their stories.

He ran his finder across the ribbing of a line of books that rested upon one of the shelves. Strange symbols and characters titled them upon the ribbing, none of them he could understand.

He finally found a book that seemed interesting, it was a black book that seemed to be at least 1000 pages long. He pulled it out, and turned to look at the front of the book.

He could not read, and yet he seemed to immediately understand what the title was trying to convey to him. His mind was telling him that the book was titled "Athanatos". His ears began ringing, as blood trickled down from his nose and than fell onto the book.

When the first drop of blood landed on the book, it was like a giant gong went off. Not just in his head, but throughout the world, but of course that was not true. Athan's eyes dilated to the extreme, almost like pins and needles.

He kept staring at what appeared to be nothing for a while, before he finally snapped out of his daze, his nose had already stopped bleeding by then, and his head pulsed as if he had just been hit in the head by a vase.

Athan looked down at the book and noticed that there was no blood anywhere on it, he dismissed it and laid it on a table that was in his room, ignoring it for the time being. He had already decided that he would read it when he learned to read.

Athan was about to lay down when he was pulled from his bed by a sound coming from the door:

"Knock, Knock"

Athan quickly got up and opened the door. It was once again Xenia standing there, with a smile, that once again threatened to stop Athan's heart. She quickly got to why she was there,

"The Master has asked for your audience."

She then turned around and walked away, Athan quickly ran out of the room following behind her.