FOR APOLLO
“I'm so sorry I have to do this.”
Apollo,
You should stay very far away.
I mean that more than I have ever meant anything.
I know what you are. I know what was done to you. I know how hard you have fought to remain a person instead of a weapon, and I refuse to be the hand that drags you back into that shape.
There is still enough of me left to tell you this plainly: if you follow me, I might hurt you.
Worse, I might do it because you were there because part of me knows you would come if I asked.
You have always understood the difference between obedience and devotion. Do not offer me either. Not now.
If this becomes ugly, if it becomes cruel, if you hear my voice and think it sounds like the one you knew—do not trust it.
Keep your distance. Keep your freedom. Keep your wings, even broken as they are.
Let me be the only thing that falls.
— Zias
what zias knows
fear
To be reduced to an object. To serve divinity again. To have his will stripped from him until he is no longer Apollo, only an instrument.
desire
Autonomy. A future that belongs to him. The right to exist as a person, not a purpose.
trusted names
Minato, Yakov, Mira, Anyiel, Zias.
motif
An old angel's wing. A broken halo. Not holiness, but what remains after severance.
note
You were useful long before anyone pointed that out. Do not let gods, kings, or grief convince you otherwise.