You are our Atlas

"Ma'am, no disrespect, but I'm not sure you understand just who Petunia is--"

"Oh, I quite understand." The elven woman's sunken gaze was accompanied by a small smile. She looked, for just a moment, very, very tired. "Only one soul can slay the demons of Azkabaster. Only one has the power to take their lives. Your friend is the descendant of the god Alas, who once held the earth upon his shoulders, and bore the weight of her burdens."

"You're making a mista--"

"That's bullshit." Petunia interjected. "Gods aren't real. I've never seen one, and neither have you. That thing was just a monster, and your god, but a fairy tale." Petunia crossed her arms. Others were staring now, rousing from their blissful sleep, eyes falling upon the pair of outsiders with a mix of curiosity and anger.

The elderly woman smiled gently. "Believe what you'd like. But I can see it on your face. You are the one we have long-awaited, Miss Mariner." She reach down to touch the pool of light before her. from it sprang a near-copy of the deadly creature, and she gestured to it. It lurched, and growled, but no sound was emitted. "See before you, the demons themselves. They come in the night, into the homes of the innocent. They claw at the victim's throat and mouth while they are sleeping, and they seep into the hosts's lungs, devouring them from the inside out and assuming their identity."

She sighed, brushing away the light. It blurred, and then reformed into a muscular man; he bent, crumbling under the weight of the earth on his back. He melted away into a gemstone, radiating bright light as it receded into the core of the earth. "They seek the soul of the god Atlas. Trapped within a brilliant ruby, and lain to rest within the center of the earth. Many believe that it is what keeps the very planet we live upon turning, and what keeps the sun and the moon rising and falling from beyond the horizon."

Petunia scowled again. "This is too much. Crayg, do you believe this horse shit?" Petunia swatted at the light, which drifted around like fog and re-condensed into a new shape. Petunia, with a gem set deep into her chest, standing with her axe at the ready.

"But when Atlas's soul was trapped in the center of the earth, a small whisp escaped. It was Mother Earth's thanks for carrying her for eternity. She sent it sailing through the clouds, and down to earth, to touch a mortal. This mortal became the earth's protector, his soul intertwined with Atlas's. And from this man, the soul followed his bloodline for many centuries, thousands and thousands of milennia until it settled upon you."

The old woman smiled gently. "You are our Atlas."