InsaneJournal

When you interacted with spirits on a regular basis, it was hard to focus on the difference with ghosts. Or to find yourself wanting to experience it. But the spirits were different, they were of Vallo, farmers and hunters, and those who had perished all around the island. They sometimes needed help, or just wanted to say hello to whoever was listening.

Atreus was always listening. He rarely minded them, they were just a part of his regular life, and largely intrusive.

But they weren't ghosts. They weren't what everyone had been seeing lately. Family, friends, both living and dead. If he'd told his father about his quiet hope, Kratos would have told him to not wish for something he could not have.

But that didn't stop him - it never did - from wanting to see her. He'd been watching, constantly, eyes open even more than they usually were, for whispers, for her voice. The kind, gentle voice that used to read to him when he was a boy, that taught him to grow and hunt and fish, to read and to fight.

Kratos made him into the fighter and the God he was now, but Faye made Atreus the person he was. His heart, kindness and empathy. It all came from her, and he had been left with so many questions unanswered and so much left to do without her.

It still didn't feel fair, even years later. Why he, an immortal, got such a sliver of time with the person most important to him. That alone always made him feel guilty, why he should be luckier than others who had less time with their parents, and Atreus just ended up wrestling with emotions that he kept quiet on.

It was in the middle of this war in his head that Atreus felt her, and his head lifted immediately. There, standing nearby in a forest clearing, was the ghostly form of his mother, as he remembered her. Braided hair, leather clothes, hands open and welcoming.

His first instinct was to run and hug her, as he had done as a boy. But he knew it wouldn't work, and his eyebrows knitted together in frustration. “Mother-” his voice cracked, he couldn't help it.

Faye smiled, the most welcoming and warm embrace he could have received. “You look exactly how I had hoped you would someday.”

He wilted, just a little. “Hoped or saw?” he couldn't help it, immediately pushing at the one topic between them that was never touched on.

Faye noticed, as she did all things, and her calm wisdom was showing through as she smiled at her son. “The burden of prophecy is not one I wish on anyone. It was time for you to learn when you did, but do not let it define you, Atreus.”

Kratos said similar over the years, in his more abrupt and gruff way, but it never quite hit as hard. Atreus still looked frustrated, petulant, like he was a child all over again and so stubborn. “But there's so much I don't know that-” He made a noise, not wanting to fight with his mother if this was all he saw of her.

And she understood, but held firm and stable as she looked at him. “That is life. The choices you make are yours now, and here you are free from that burden. You know that. Do not let Odin define you, here or home.” She reached out to point directly at his heart. “You are in charge of your future, no matter what the texts say. And you, my dear sweet one, are bigger than even Ragnarok. That is why Odin fears you. Because you have your own mind, and will pave a way.”

He had felt hope, following the Hotel's vision of being against himself, but that hope had always fluctuated and wavered, his self-doubt rearing its ugly head. But hearing his mother say it gave it weight. He sheepishly rubbed at the back of his neck, “I don't think even I'm bigger than R-”

Faye cut him off, with a mother's swiftness. “Are you going to spend this entire time arguing with me?”

Atreus looked up in surprise but finally grinned. It was like going back in time. “No, ma'am. There's - what do you want to see? Our house is here. I have my own now, by it. Jörmungandr! He’ll be happy to see you. And the other animals! Father, of course, but he may not be ready-- I don't know. But there's Dorian, and Shiro, and Torunn, and Matthew. I've talked to them about you and--”

Faye cut him off again, but this time fondly, as she knew his excited rambling very well, and just how easy it was for Atreus to get ahead of himself. “The house and your father first, please. I want to see for myself that you two are taking care of one another.”

She closed the gap between them and held out a hand, even though he couldn’t take it. “I never doubted his ability to be a good father, but he needs you just as much as you have needed him, and I would like to see that frown once more. Let us go.”