Work Text:
Hermes’ daddy had a lot of books.
He said it was because he was a powerful god, and had been alive for a really long time, so he had collected a lot of books over the years. And stories shouldn’t be gotten rid of - stories could change the way the world itself worked.
“You came from a story,” Daddy said, tapping Hermes’ nose and smiling at the way Hermes giggled. “I told the universe a story about you, and it made the story real. So stories matter, Hermes, they remind us of things we might forget, or they teach us things we need to know. Pay attention to them, alright?”
“I will, Daddy,” Hermes promised.
And he did! He asked to hear stories from Daddy and Papá every night, and he asked Scott and Lizzie for stories when he saw them, and he came up with a few all on his own. And he started trying to read some of the stories his daddy had collected.
Reading them was hard, sometimes. They were in a lot of different languages and had a lot of big words, so sometimes he had to carry a book to Daddy and ask what a word meant, or if he could read part of the story out loud so Hermes could work out what it said. (Daddy always agreed with a smile.)
There were all sorts of books in Stratos. Some of them were happy, some of them were sad, some of them were boring. Some of them were stories that had really happened and some of them were made up. Some of them had pictures and maps, and some didn’t, and some were only pictures. And Hermes did his best to pay attention to all of them.
He figured out pretty quickly where all the libraries on Stratos were and how to get to them, so when Daddy had finished giving him a tour of the new places in Stratos since his last visit, he asked “Daddy, can I go read books?”
“Of course you can.” Daddy set him down with a ruffle of his hair. “Come back to the house by dinnertime, alright?”
“Okay!” Hermes grabbed his toy sheriff - a very good audience for stories - and ran off toward the biggest library Daddy had. It was a pretty building, and Hermes always loved visiting it.
He wanted a real story today, so he wandered through shelves until he found the section of books about real people. There were a lot of them; Daddy sometimes told him stories about the people in them that weren’t in the books, and he said it was because he’d met a lot of these people.
Hermes was hunting for an interesting looking book when he saw something weird. It was a little bump on the bottom of one of the shelves. Anyone regular sized wouldn’t have been able to see it, it was too close to the ground, but Hermes could.
“What do you think that is, mister Sheriff?” he whispered to the toy in his arms, reaching out to poke at the bump.
There was a click, and then the whole shelf slid slowly away from the wall.
Hermes gasped, taking a nervous step back and staring wide-eyed at the dim tunnel that had suddenly appeared. Had that always been behind the books? Did Daddy know it was there?
He looked back to the toy sheriff. “… What should we do?”
There was magic down that tunnel. It was swirling around, just a bit, like a light breeze pushing him toward whatever was in there. Like it wanted him to go look.
Sheriffs were supposed to be brave, right? Hermes took a little shuffling step toward the tunnel.
… It didn’t look bad. There were lanterns set into the walls, and it wasn’t very dusty, and it smelled like old books. Hermes liked old books, even though he had to be really careful with them. And… if it was really bad, then the magic would be warning him away from it, right? Or Daddy would have found it and fixed it. Bad things never lasted very long in Stratos.
Very slowly, Hermes crept toward the entrance of the tunnel, hugging his sheriff tight against his chest. He wanted to know what was in there. Just a quick little look, and if it was bad, he would go right back outside and get Daddy.
The tunnel was cool, when Hermes carefully poked his head in. It wasn’t that hot of a day, but hiding behind the books was obviously making the tunnel colder than outside. He pulled his tunic around himself a bit tighter as he edged slowly inside.
He was a little bit worried that the door would close again as soon as he was inside the tunnel, but even when he waited and watched it for a minute, the bookshelf didn’t move any more. And besides, he could see a button on the wall nearby that probably would make it open again if it did close. That made him feel a bit better, and he walked down the tunnel feeling a little more brave.
It wasn’t a very long tunnel. After walking for a minute or two, it widened into a big room lined with bookshelves. Across the room from the tunnel, there was something that looked like an altar, with colorful candles and jewelry and dry flowers scattered on it. Some of the flowers looked newer than the others.
Hermes cautiously walked over to one of the bookshelves and trailed his fingers over the spines. “These look old.”
They looked almost older than Daddy was, older than any of the books Hermes had held before. But there was magic on them, shimmery and soft, and as he touched it Hermes realized it was there to protect the books.
“The Cl - Clash of the Great Stags,” Hermes read quietly, looking at a pretty book with gold on the cover. “What’s a stag?”
The toy sheriff didn’t answer, of course.
Hermes kept looking. He saw a few more books about stags, and some books about exploding things, and a bunch of place names he didn’t recognize. The Cod Empire, the Overgrown, Pixandria, Mythland. Stories about empires and stories about people all mixed together. And then he got to a bookshelf that was all full of books on the same empire.
“Tales of the Ocean Queen,” he read, looking wide-eyed at all the books on the shelf with that title. There were so many, all in different colors and patterns, like someone had gotten every version of the same story they could. There were other books there - History of the Ocean Empire, The Ocean Queen’s Edicts, some books about the ocean in general - but Tales of the Ocean Queen sounded interesting.
Hermes set down his sheriff and carefully picked up a copy with pink and blue swirls on the cover. He sat down, holding it in his lap like Daddy had taught him to do with old books, and opened it to page one.
“Once upon a time,” he read. A good start! All the best stories started that way. “There was a girl who had a dream. She longed to reign over each pond, lake, and stream. She said, ‘Every last river and the deep blue sea, all of it, one day, will belong to me. They’ll all call me Lizzie, the Ocean Queen. And when I’m in power, I’ll live in a tower, in a palace of pris - pris-ma-rine.’”
He read about the Ocean Queen building a big palace, and helping her brother fight a fish war, and meeting a king. The king seemed nice, and the story said that he and the Ocean Queen fell in love and planned to get married.
Hermes had never seen anybody get married before, but he knew what it was, and he quickly explained it to his sheriff, just in case he didn’t know. Papá had said it was a special gathering where people who were in love told the people in charge that they were in love, and then made promises to each other, and then they had a party about it. He didn’t know exactly why the people in charge needed a ceremony to tell themselves they were in love, but the book said something about making their empires stronger, so… maybe since they were in charge, they had the wedding to tell each other that they were in love, so both the empires knew about it. That made sense.
“I hope somebody in Sanctuary falls in love soon,” he told his sheriff. “Papá said he’d tell me if they did, so I can go to the party. He said there’s cake at weddings.”
“Hermes?”
Hermes jumped a little at the sudden noise, and he turned to see his daddy standing in the doorway. “Daddy!”
“What are you doing in here?” Daddy asked. He looked kind of nervous.
“I found the tunnel and wanted to see what it was,” Hermes explained. “And then I found all these books, so I’m reading! Do you want to read too?”
Daddy’s expression was… strange. He looked sort of sad and scared and lost all at the same time. Then he sighed and came over to kneel next to Hermes. “What are you reading?”
“Tales of the Ocean Queen!”
“Oh.” Daddy’s voice wobbled, just a little. “And - and you’re reading to your sheriff toy, there?”
Hermes nodded. “He’s very good at listening.”
Daddy took a deep, slow breath, and for just a second, it looked like he was about to cry. “… I see.”
“… Daddy?”
“Yes, Hermes?”
“Why are all these books hiding?”
Daddy was quiet for a minute. Then he said, very softly, “Because they make me sad.”
Hermes frowned. “But it’s a happy story.”
“It doesn’t stay that way.” Daddy reached over to flip the pages of the book, showing Hermes a drawing of a shadowy person with horns and sharp teeth. “It’s - it isn’t very happy. But they’re important, so I keep them back here.”
“There’s happy parts, though!” Hermes insisted. “The Ocean Queen and the king of Meza - Mez -”
“Mezalea,” Daddy said quietly.
“Mezalea are gonna get married and have a party!”
“And then the king of Mezalea dies,” Daddy snapped.
Hermes faltered. Daddy had never sounded like that, all angry and sad, and it honestly scared him a little.
Daddy looked at him and sighed, then took another deep breath. “… I’m sorry, Hermes. I shouldn’t have snapped. It’s just… the Mezalean king isn’t a very good part of the story. He didn’t help with things he should have helped with, and he wasn’t able to help anyone, in the end. And then he died, all alone.”
“Oh.” Hermes looked back at the picture in the book. “… That sounds sad.”
“He was.” Daddy’s voice was soft and sad again.
“… Did marrying the queen make him happy?”
Daddy nodded. “More than anything. That’s why he died, you know. Because he lost her.”
“She died too?” Hermes asked.
“Eventually, but…” Daddy sighed and held out his hands. “May I?”
Hermes nodded and carefully handed over the book.
Daddy took it carefully, like if he even breathed wrong it would fall apart, and flipped to the very end of the book. He ran a finger over the words on the page, then cleared his throat and started to read. “As the waters wash away, I fall apart, my mind decays. The rapture broke my sacred connection - in time, I’ll lose all recollection. I’m writing this down before it’s too late; my memories are fading, I’ll soon meet my fate. I may forget, but don’t you dare. Always remember the Ocean’s heir.”
“… What did she forget?” Hermes whispered, not really knowing if he wanted the answer.
“Everything.” Daddy ran his fingers gently over the page again. “She was cursed to forget everything she knew if she left the ocean, and - well, something big happened. She called it the rapture. It drained the ocean, so she just… forgot.”
Oh.
Hermes looked at the book and thought about all the good things that he’d read so far. The Ocean Queen’s brother, the Mezalean king, all of her friends. And then his vision started to blur as tears started to prick at his eyes.
“Woah, hey, Hermes -” Daddy quickly set the book down and scooped Hermes into his lap. “Hey, it was a really long time ago, it’s alright.”
“It’s not alright!” Hermes protested, rubbing his eyes like that would make the tears go away. “That’s not fair! She didn’t go away from the ocean, the ocean went away from her! That shouldn’t count! She shouldn’t have forgotten!”
Daddy was quiet for a moment, rubbing gentle circles into Hermes’ back. “… It wasn’t fair, you’re right. Curses usually aren’t. But that’s why I have all these stories, because… because someone needs to remember, and I’m the only one left who can.”
Hermes sniffled. “Papá says secrets make you feel lonely.”
“Your papa is a very smart man.”
“I’ll help you remember,” Hermes decided, wiping his eyes again. “That way you won’t have to be lonely or sad anymore.”
“… You’ll help me remember?” Daddy echoed slowly, his hands coming up to cup the sides of Hermes’ face. “Hermes… I told you, this isn’t a happy story.”
Hermes frowned. “Then won’t you need extra people helping you remember it? So if you ever get too sad you don’t have to remember it if you don’t want to, because there’s somebody else who can do it for you.”
Daddy just stared at him for a moment. Then he laughed, sounding almost like he was about to cry too, and pulled Hermes into a hug. “You’re right. You’re right, I would be honored if you helped me remember.”
“Are all the books about the Ocean Queen?” Hermes asked, looking around at all the bookshelves.
“No. There were twelve empires, and the Ocean Queen only ruled one of them.” Daddy scooped Hermes up and carried him over to one of the shelves, pointing to different books as he talked. “There was the Ocean Empire, Mezalea, the Cod Empire, Pixandria, Rivendell, Mythland, the Crystal Cliffs, House Blossom, the Grimlands, the Lost Empire, the Undergrove, and Gilded Helianthia.”
Twelve was a lot of empires. “Did you know everybody?”
“No, not all of them, but I met all twelve of them at least once.” Daddy carried him over to the altar, and Hermes could see all the candles and scattered things much better from this angle. There was a pretty shell necklace right in the middle, and he could see the same protective magic swirling around it that was coating the books. “I keep this as sort of… a memorial. Pix loved burning candles for people.”
Hermes frowned as he suddenly noticed a problem. “Daddy, you did it wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s only eleven.” Hermes pointed to each candle as he counted. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven! See?”
Daddy sighed. “… I don’t have one for the Mezalean king.”
That just wasn’t right. Hermes looked around and saw a little box on the floor next to the altar. He wiggled, and his daddy let him down, though he seemed a bit confused.
Hermes ran over to open the box. Just like he’d guessed, there were spare candles in it, and he picked up a pretty purply-pink one before turning back to his daddy. “Up again please!”
Slowly, Daddy picked him back up, and he held Hermes steady while he leaned over to light the candle and set it down on the altar.
“There,” he said firmly. “He should get a candle too.”
“… Yeah,” Daddy said softly, and he squeezed Hermes just a little tighter. “Yeah, maybe he should.”
“How did he meet the queen?” Hermes asked, hoping his daddy would know some of the really good stories about these people.
Daddy chuckled a bit, bouncing Hermes a bit on his hip. “Well… They were making a trade deal, if I remember correctly. He had a lot of terracotta, because Mezalea was in a mesa, and she had a lot of prismarine that he needed for the buildings he wanted to make.”
Hermes settled in to listen as Daddy started to tell him about Mezalea and the first time the king saw the Ocean Queen. These stories were important to Daddy, after all, and everybody needed help remembering sometimes.