Marcus finally came to, opening his eyes before shutting them quickly, eyes stinging from the glaring light. He took a little while of squinting to adjust his eyes to the light before opening his eyes completely.
He looked around, taking in his surroundings, but he didn't recognise anything around him. The last thing he could remember was getting warned by Artemis before getting knocked unconscious by a tentacle that came out of nowhere.
He was laying in a bed with bandages wrapped around his torso and head. His arms and legs were in a cast and were being suspended in the air by a band looped through the roof. Marcus struggled to turn his head but managed to look to either side of him, checking what else was in the room. He didn't see anything,
Marcus tried to get up from the position he was in, attempting to lift his arms and use them to pick himself up, but he quickly found himself in too much pain to even move. He screamed out in pain, ruining the silence that had preceded him.
He laid back in the bed he was in, shutting his eyes and trying to gather his thoughts as to what had happened after he was knocked out. He remembered being knocked into the seas, but nothing after that.
He groaned out loud, calling out to Artemis for help, but he was met with complete silence. A cold shudder ran down his back. For even Artemis to have been disconnected from him, he knew something was going on.
Marcus opened his eyes, hoping to find some more clues as to where he was, and suddenly yelped in surprise. Two eyes, other than his own, were looking down on him, eyes twinkling with intelligence. After the initial shock and then a closer look, Marcus realised it was his fox bond, Teumessia. She seemed worried and started nudging his head in an attempt to wake him up.
He chuckled from the affectionate actions of his bond before bringing himself back to the situation at hand. He would have to find some way to get back to full health, and he'd have to figure out where he was.
His thought processes were interrupted, however, when the only entrance to the room was suddenly and rather forcefully opened, slamming into the wall behind it. There stood two people in the doorway, one an old man and the other a young girl in her late teens, a similar age to Marcus.
The old man had a powerful air to him, walking with grandiose and precision, showing perfect control of the Vis he emitted. He had silver hair that came down below his shoulders, combed carefully to be completely straight and well-kept. He held a long thin staff made of wood that had been engraved in all kinds of symbols that Marcus didn't recognise.
The younger girl had light blue hair running down to her back and had eyes of a similar colour, taking a similar appearance to the ocean. Marcus had to consciously stop himself from getting lost in her eyes, but the rest of her appearance was definitely of the same quality!
Marcus was a sight for poor eyes, cast up in bandages and painted in ointments and medicinal fluids. The room stank of herbs and other botanical creations, burning his nose and the back of his throat, but Marcus grit his teeth and tried to ignore it.
Suddenly, the younger girl ran over towards him, a glint in her eyes. She had her hands outstretched as if she were trying to grab him, making Marcus flinch in recoil. Instead of grabbing him, however, she grabbed his bond Tiu who had been sat on top of his chest.
She let out a squeal of delight before holding the animal on her forearms, tucked under her breasts.
Marcus felt a pang of jealousy after seeing this, but he hid it well. The older man walked over slowly, seeming to take in his surroundings as he went, even though the room was completely empty.
"Hello there, young man," he said, "I see you've woken up now".
"Who are you? Where am I?"
"Woah, easy there! You're in the underwater city of Atlantis. One of our scout teams saw your battle with the Kraken, but they were on strict orders not to intervene. They did grab your body afterwards though and give you an oxygen tank so you didn't drown. I can't imagine being a human…"
"You mean you guys left me to die?"
"Well if you saw someone getting attacked by a Kraken that could devour you on a whim, you wouldn't exactly go sacrifice yourself. You're lucky they're one of the nicer soldiers. Most would've just watched you die so they didn't get caught by the Kraken."
As much as Marcus hated it, the man had a point.
"Fine, fair enough. Do you guys have any potions or anything to heal me up? I can pay you for them."
"Well we do have some available, but we can't give you any because of the Kraken's power."
"Could you… elaborate?"
He looked puzzled, as if it were common knowledge, before replying, "the Kraken has an inherent power that allows it to destroy the Vis pathways of those it overwhelms in battle. We managed to get to you quickly, so we were able to stabilise them before irreversible damage, however, my soldiers do report that your Vis was already unnaturally stable even after the attack."
A brief flash of relief flashed across Marcus' face, along with one of knowing. It was so brief that even Marcus hadn't realised what he had done, but it was enough for the old man to know everything. Marcus must've had some kind of inherent power that allowed him to recover, and that would be invaluable to Atlantis' forces when it came to defeating beasts like the Kraken.
In Marcus' mind, however, he was thinking 'maybe that was Artemis' doing? Is that why I can't hear her anymore? My Vis is just too skewed right now?'
"I do, however, have methods for healing your Vis now, but I don't advise them. They require regular dosages and can damage the potential of your Vis pathways. Another option would be to give them time to recover, but that can take years, and that's only because you're already stabilised. Your best option, in my opinion, would be to become my student. I see that you're not from around here, and judging by your clothes, not from any place I know of…"
Marcus had thought this might be a problem, as the fashion sense on Delos was extremely different from the rest of civilisation, probably due to them being cut off from the world.
"If you become my student, I can also have you tutored in the politics of this world, how to conduct yourself in society, and how to bend others to your will. As to whether I have the power…"
He reached into a pocket and took out an emblem depicting a man on top of a shark with a Kraken's tentacles coming out of it.
"I am the Old King of Atlantis, and father of the current King. This here is my granddaughter, princess and future queen of Atlantis. If you join me, matchmaking is always an option…" he said slyly.
His granddaughter didn't hear what he had said, saving Marcus' dignity. Either way, however, if the man was who he said he was, becoming his student wouldn't be too bad! He would have to first confirm that the man was really the Ex-King however, so he made a decision.
"Can I have some time to consider it? I'd also like to go explore Atlantis for a while."
"Sure, drink this."
The old man threw him a potion. Marcus tried to identify it, but he had no control of his Vis, nor the System.
He could only trust the man, chugging back the potion in a single gulp. He felt a burning sensation across his body, running rampant through his blood.
"Give it a moment…"
Suddenly, the pain turned to pleasure, and Marcus felt his entire body start to recover, and after a few minutes, he felt good as new! Minus the fact that he couldn't use any of his Vis of course.
"I'll give you a week to consider, but make the right choice."
"Old Man, I never got your name!"
"The name's Minos. Old King Minos."
With that, he turned and left, taking his granddaughter with him. Tiu leapt down from her arms and came over to Marcus, leaping onto his lap.
"Traitor…" he muttered, making Tiu bite his finger.