#in hindsight maybe i couldve made this an ancient greece hermes and time traveller!luke thing
.....?!!?!!??WoW so cool pls feed us more luke go back in time?Hermes too??
Luke made a mistake. He should have known better than to accept the strange kindness and welcome the villagers had given him when he stumbled into their settlement. He should have known better than to trust them without invoking xenia¹ instead of excusing their manic behavior as his own paranoia acting up.
He isn't sure what he would have done if they hadn't let him stay in one of their guest rooms—travelling back in time put a huge strain on your body and mental state, go figure. Luke thinks he might have slept out in the wild, which wasn't a great option either.
At least here, he had been fed enough food to last the Titan Army a month and a bucket of questionably clean river water to rinse himself off. Even if they only did it to raise him up as a human sacrifice to "honor and please the gods".
Luke let them dress and drag him up the hill to the temple at the top of a nearby hill. Inside the small space, Luke saw a makeshift altar with an unflattering statue of Hermes sat behind a flat stone slab with dried bloodstains coloring the gray stone a dirty brown.
Luke waits for the priest to reach towards the ceremonial knife and loosen their hold on him. He takes him by surprise—pretending to be docile was such a pain—when he pulls out a knife he picked up and hid under his robes and rapidly jabs the blunt end into his head, cleanly knocking him out.
Luke walks over to the other food offerings that the villagers had left around the altar before Luke came in. He eyes the fruits in front of him. Would the god care if he took one out?
Before Luke could decide, a presence made itself known around him. The hair on his arms stood on end as a light, threatening touch lands on the back of his neck.
The voice, airliy sings out. "Why, hello, little thief."
Luke instinctively glares at the man before him. His face was shadowed by his petasos and only the early glow of a white eye showed through the unnatural darkness.
Luke doesn't like the intrigued tone. There was a light whoosh of air and Luke finds himself nose-to-nose with a younger version of his father. His youthful face stood in dichotomy with the empty, coldness in his eyes.
Luke doesn't dare breathe. The hand on his neck tightens and Luke knew without a doubt that the man in front of him could snap his spine in a heartbeat.
The young Hermes' eyes sharpened, an unnatural smile curling across his face as he moves back to look over Luke's shoulder. "Your son?"
Sensing the god's distraction, Luke stole a glance back and was instantly filled with fury, bitterness, and relief all at once.
Hermes—his biological father, not the monster-like man in front of him—stood at the entrance of the temple. "Luke, come here. Now."
Luke doesn't think he's ever heard Hermes sound this tense. He shifts his body a bit, but the other Hermes strengthens his grip to a painful degree that Luke fails to bite back the pained sound from escaping his lips. Shit, this was definitely going to bruise.
The older Hermes lets out a controlled breath. Luke can see the way his cheek twitches in restrained anger. "Luke, close your eyes."
Luke isn't stupid enough to disobey this one order. Not when he could feel the charged atmosphere of two gods challenging each other.
Fuck, Luke thinks to himself, not daring to draw the attention and ire of either version of Hermes. All he needed was a single moment to slip away and run away.
He never realized how...less...the gods have become in the modern times until he felt the full force of divine energy engulfing the temple. Even with his eyes closed and his arms covering his face, it felt as if the sheer raw power was trying to melt through his skin and bones.
A hand grabs Luke's arm and his stomach lurches as his body becomes weightless. The wind sharply whips past his skin in that familiar way when he used to fly with Maia, his winged shoes.
"You can open your eyes now, Luke."
Luke is greeted by an unfamiliar sky. Stars scattered across the expanse of blues and purples in glowing clusters. Luke thinks he could trace constellations and find planets easily with this much clarity in the sky.
Luke swallows, his throat dry. "Why are you here?"
It was only supposed to be him. Bleeding from his self-inflicted stab wound and lying against the cold floor of Olympus, Luke had made peace with himself. He was going to die. He finally made his choice.
But then Kronos pulled the last of his energy to bring upon Luke "one last curse" for betraying his master before fading away.
Instead of greeting the Underworld, Luke found himself centuries into the past where gods weaved themselves among mortals and treated humans like games and passing entertainment.
"Hermes." Luke clenches his jaw. "How are you here too?"
Hermes doesn't look at him. "I bargained with the Fates."
With dawning realization and dread, Luke watches as the goldy glow fades away from Hermes' skin. Hermes makes eye contact with Luke, emotions indiscernible.
"My divinity in exchange for your life."
¹Xenia: 'guest-friendship'; ancient concept of hospitality [towards travelers, foreigners, and people outside your household].
