Chapter Text
If he had a single merit for every time he had ended up in a situation like this he could probably own the emperors own palace.
The oceans waves crashed as he sat on an old boat – if it could even be called more than a few planks and a cloth – floating in unknown waters he had been here for at least a few days now, his food supply running out despite his habit of forgoing food during situations like this to try and preserve his body for at least a few extra days. He couldn’t even recognise the stars at night at this point nor the fish he finds when he attempts to fish, unfortunately that left him with a particularly bad case of food poisoning. A bird soars through the sky past him and Rouye attempts to chase it before being tugged back, he couldn’t be any more alone he’d rather starve then face his own thoughts to that point.
“You there! Are you alright lone sailor?” The accent the man greeting him speaks with is strange but he’s been wandering too long not to pick up languages he doubts even the oldest gods would be unfamiliar with, he finds a few of them don’t differ much but they aren’t always the friendliest a few spears to the chest portrays that.
“Ah good day! I happen to have floated too far would you happen to be able to help? It would be fine if you just pointed me to the direction of land if anything!” He hopes they don’t ransack his boat, he doesn’t feel like being fish food again.
“Well sure, but how about you help us get to Ithaca and we can help you get to your home?”
Ithaca? That’s a new place.
“I have never been to this Ithaca place, but I wouldn’t mind joining you I haven’t had a place to go for a few years now I am a rouge traveler at most, but I can lend a hand.”
“That would be a great! I must warn you our own prohibitions tend to be quite low… Ah I haven’t introduced myself yet, I am Odysseus of Ithaca, may I have your name friend?”
“It is good to meet you Odysseus! My name is Lian, and my family name is Xie, Xie Lian, I have no issues about low prohibitions it would be quite common out here.”
If the man has any issues about him, be his name, his accent, or his clothes, he does not voice them but just welcomes him aboard introducing him to his crew.
The voyage for the next few days was a simple one but something about the crew seemed on edge, one could clearly appoint it to a life at sea but something about their eyes going to the distance show that they clearly are more reminiscence of a time long ago the look he had seen not long ago upon the boarders of Banyue hardly a decade ago at this point, he misses Ban Yue herself and the little Pei boy who followed her about but that had past he couldn’t reminisce people he had abandoned his parents, his friends, his people, Hong Hong-er, Wu Ming.
It’s a few days of circling through the routine of guarding, fishing and rowing that his bad luck catches up on him. Really it wasn’t too bad but the shark he had managed to fish spoke otherwise, it had begun to munch on his hand after he had fallen off the ship. Odysseus had been talking with him at the time it happened, and a particularly strong wave got everyone on edge that they were able to collect him in time lest he drown a be stranded again.
“Xie Lian. That is a beast! Why aren’t you panicking- How aren’t you panicking?!” Eurylochus’s voice cuts though as Odysseus pulls the shark off his hand.
“Ah! It’s fine! I heal quick don’t worry at least let’s use it for food!” Please don’t push him overboard claiming he is a demon is what is currently circling though his mind, he has enjoyed this so far and his luck hasn’t been too bad! His ankle throbs with a numb sort of pain as he stands, dripping wet from the waves, at least they have clothes aboard he can borrow not to different from his own but still so unfamiliar he might recreate it in the future should he need it seems cheaper than buying another set of cultivator robes.
If he notices Odysseus staring at him with an odd look through the next few days, he will say that he didn’t and that his friend was probably just watching the birds fly by.
It’s a few days later when he’s on his watch shift that Odysseus talks to him. He knew it was inevitable; he had refused to touch the food in fear these mortals would starve not that he mentioned the latter, he tripped over at every loose screw and board, he mumbled in a language so foreign to them it would probably be considered a language of monsters, he appeared to be a young man yet had the knowledge of an elder.
He knew what would happen.
“Xie Lian my friend, you have treated us with nothing but kindness but I must know. Are you a danger to us getting home. What’s your catch and who are you, God? Nymph? Mons…” The fact the last title was cut off doesn’t go unnoticed, but he ignores it, no human should go through what he’s heard these mortals have gone through. Where are their gods?
“Ah, an ex-god of sorts, I guess? I was banished however many centuries ago, you lose count of the years you know, thank you though yourself and the crew have truly been good friends of mine for the short time we have known each other. Now I have answered your question I do have a question for you who are you running from?”
Odysseus’s face is blank not in an unkind way, but he is analysing the words spoken to him, truly a wise man, before he responds.
“The god of the ocean Poseidon. We blinded his son rather then killed him so he’s after us. But what are your goals ascension? Fame? Or our doom?”
“I truly am just a wanderer at this point I help where I am needed until my own misfortune prevents me from traveling the path any further.”
The man in front of him is still clearly suspicious.
“You have been a good friend so far, should you attempt to bring misfortune upon us I will not hesitate to throw you off board. But thank you, your skills have been handy now come on its time for your own rest.”
And with that they part, both know that this is fleeting for one of them but he has a goal in mind and although a god of misfortune he wants to hope that the man who bears the weight of too many lives shall reach his home.
It’s no surprise to him when he overhears that Eurylochus had opened the bag, after all it’s always the ones who you are the closest to you that the betrayal hurts the most. Mu Qing, Feng Xin, His parents, Wu Ming? No not Wu Ming. He betrayed Wu Ming
He doesn’t stop the crew when they go against Odysseus, its not up for him he hardly knows the crew, but if Odysseus happens to have had his wounds checked to make sure he won’t die its nobody’s business.
He isn’t angry when he drowns. He isn’t even sad that he had lost his old robes, destroyed from the shark munching on them, blood stained the sleeve pink, and the crew looked at him strange when he continued to wear them with no issues till Odysseus had offered him a chiton the day after their conversation. He’s alone again, him and Rouye, but he begs to Athena that Odysseus will get home to see his family as strange as it is that he a god from a different land would pray to one of the people of Greek is, yet he still hopes she gets it. Athena seems like an interesting person to fight and plan battle strategies with.
Maybe in a few years he’ll make his way to Ithaca as he washes up upon the familiar shore from a place, he himself wondered if it had made him homesick being apart from. If a pin that had been used to fasten the chiton ended up in the mausoleum with his parents no one could even say a word.