Pavios and Thanasis

Pavios and Thanasis
Details
Race	Humans
Birthplace	Theros
Lifetime	Mending Era
Sources

Pavios from Meletis and Thanasis from Akros were star-crossed lovers from Theros, whose destinies were so intertwined that Adrasteia the Fate accidentally cut herself when she was severing the tangle of threads they had created together, leaving a small drop of her blood on the weave.

History

After Pavios and his father moved from Meletis to Akros on a diplomatic mission, Pavios met his neighbor, the blacksmith's son Thanasis, and they fell in love. They would sneak away from their fathers to sit on a cliff outside Akros, next to an emonberry tree, its branches weighed down by its white, tart fruits. Thanasis wanted to join the Akroan army, but he was being apprenticed as a smith by his father. Pavios wished to continue his study of magic, but there was a school for that in Akros, only in Meletis. To make matters worse, his father had betrothed him to a girl in Meletis, despite Pavios's wishes.

One day, Pavios forgot his cloak for his meeting with Thanasis. While sharing a story about Akroan warriors fighting a cyclops, Thanasis wrapped his rabbit-fur-lined cloak around Pavios. When they left, Thanasis told Pavios he could keep the cloak, and he treasured the gift. Pavios in return gave Thanasis a short sword, a betrothal gift from the girl's father in Meletis. Thanasis also opened up about his grief for his mother, who had been killed by a beast in a mountain pass, leaving only broken pottery and blood stains behind. Pavios comforted him with a kiss.

Their fathers then forbid them from seeing each other, and Pavios's father dragged him all across Akros each day while waiting for the wedding day to arrive when they would travel back to Meletis and leave Akros behind. Pavios snuck a note to Thanasis under a rock near his smithy, and during the night, they agreed to meet each other again on the cliff the next day.

Pavios equipped himself for a long journey, as he had resolved to leave Akros and make his destiny, preferably with Thanasis. But he would leave no matter if Thanasis did not want to, to get out of his father's control. While he waited, he dropped his backpack and cloak and then was suddenly witness to a <c>Fleecemane Lion<c> killing and eating a rabbit nearby. Then the lion raised its head and saw him.

He ran, panicked, past the emonberry tree and down into a gorge, never looking behind him. Inside the gorge, he clambered into a small cave and hid there, trying to remain still and quiet. After a while of waiting for possible death, Pavios peeked outside and saw that the lion was not in the gorge. It had perhaps not even followed him down from the cliff. Pavios grew worried that the lion was still by the meeting place, where Thanasis would be showing up looking for him.

Pavios hurried back up towards the cliff as night fell. There, he found his backpack torn open, and his supplies scattered. Parts of the pack had the rabbit's blood smeared on it. And then he saw Thanasis lying against the emonberry tree, his chest pierced by the sword Pavios had given him. His blood drenched his tunic, pooling on the ground. In his lap lay the rabbit-fur cloak, torn and bloodied by the lion's claws and muzzle.

Thanasis had discovered the cloak and pack and mistaken the blood for Pavios's in a scene reminiscent of Thanasis's mother's death. In that moment of despair, Thanasis had plunged the sword into his chest, not bearing to live without Pavios. Pavios in turn offered a prayer to dark Erebos, god of the dead. And the god replied. They could be together again, for eternity in Erebos's realm. If Pavios would use the sword in himself before the warmth of Thanasis left his body, Erebos would permit them to stay together in the afterlife. There would be no pain anymore. And so, Pavios threw himself on his sword, and for a moment, he laughed. Then, he closed his eyes, and the blood ran from their bodies and seeped into the roots of the emonberry tree.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Emonberry Red	Clayton Kroh	2014-02-05	Born of the Gods	Theros	Adrasteia, Pavios and Thanasis, Purphoros, Erebos

Inspiration

The inspiration for Pavios and Thanasis is likely to be from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe.