At this point, I'm convinced that if Chiron had an official motto or three on how to deal with life's wild curveballs, one of them would probably be something along the lines of: Keep calm, and when in doubt, knock back some next-level tea.
It just fit the bill, you know?
Then again, if we're really going to get into it, you could paraphrase my teacher's most important lessons over the last few months alone and still come up with a whole lineup of demigod-themed inspirational greeting cards, complete with punchy one-liners.
A wise warrior checks for trap. A wiser one assumes everything IS a trap.
Know when to be brave, and when to very heroically retreat - also known as running away. Dignity is optional.
If it looks harmless, it's not. If it looks dangerous, it's definitely worse - like chickens.
Beware The Chicken.
That sort of thing - and no, we're not gonna talk about that last one.
We never talk about The Chicken.
Sairaorg and I swore a vow and everything.
Moving on now:
The point is, Chiron was a gold-tier professional at taking everything in stride.
Case in point?
Not five minutes after Lavinia Reni showed up at the front gate, the three of us had moved back across the estate, settling into one of the peristyles Chiron kept aside for guests - A breezy courtyard with patterned Doric columns rounding it off from the rest of the house, white marble flooring shot through with artsy mosaics, and the faint scent of fresh greenery and fading summer roses seeping through the air like earthy soil and sun-dried fruit rolled into one.
Fancy, but in a classy, not-in-your-face sort of way.
We sat there at a little table, with just the right blend of cloudy shade and warm sunlight over our heads, and Chiron laid out food and drinks by hand - plates of olives and cheese, sliced bread, and a platter of soft-baked honey cakes next to a steaming pot of tea and a pitcher of grape juice.
Symbolically, that was some serious stuff.
Not the food itself, or the common courtesy behind the act, but the bigger meaning of it all
Xenia - the ancient Greek guest rites.
Back in the day, a good host had a duty to treat guests with dignity and respect, give them food and shelter, and make sure they were safe for as long as they stayed under a shared roof.
In exchange for that protection and making them feel at home, a guest had to behave, not steal anything, and generally be polite enough that the host didn't immediately regret all their recent life choices.
A two-way street, and win-win all around.
There was more to it than just that, of course, but when push came to shove, it was one of those things that greased the wheels and kept society from tearing apart at the seams.
Heck, it was so important that even the gods got in on the action and upheld the concept - Zeus himself was sometimes Zeus Xenios, protector of strangers.
Apparently, old Thunder Gramps really didn't like it when folks played fast and loose with the sacred laws of hospitality.
He had a whole gimmick - theoxenia - where he'd disguise himself as a harmless traveller and pop up around Greece at will, knocking on people's doors and checking to see if they were on the up and up.
If you treated your 'harmless guest' right, then atta boy!
You were officially a respectable Greek citizen, and on a good day, you might even luck out into a blessing or two.
Sunshine and roses for everybody!
If you didn't treat him right, though... if you tried to pull any funny business at all...
Well, that's what the lightning bolts were for.
Don't be a jerk, because you might really regret it down the line - that's what guest rights boiled down to in the end.
Taller order than some would think, because Greeks and all that, but what can you do?
On the bright side, Chiron was never the smite-happy type, and right then and there, Lavinia Reni didn't seem like the sort of lunatic who'd tempt fate, either.
If anything, she was very careful not to so much as twitch, beyond smiling tensely as my teacher took his seat in human form and gestured for us to dig in.
"Please."
"Thanks."
"Thank you."
It wasn't really a meal - just a formality.
I snagged a slice of bread and some cheese, Lavinia took a tiny cake for the sheer principle of the thing, and we both went for our mugs the second he was done pouring the tea.
"I am Chiron of Pelion," he raised his own cup tellingly, and kept his voice firm and gentle. "Be welcome in my home, and partake in the blessings of my table."
"I am grateful for the hospitality," Lavinia said, nodding politely before taking a slow, measured sip - then she blinked. "This is amazing."
It was - honeyed, leafy and with a hint of something lemony towards the end.
Maybe even a drop of Nectar added for the extra kick.
"I would hope so," he leaned back and arched a brow. "It would reflect quite poorly on me if I were to serve you something inedible."
"Oh!" Her cheeks flushed a pretty pink colour, and my lips twitched and curved up at the edges. "I didn't mean-"
"I know." There was nothing mean-spirited about Chiron's snort, and he waved off the protest easily enough. "A jest, nothing more."
"Don't worry about it," I agreed, and they both turned to stare my way expectantly. "It'll take a lot more than ragging on tea to get on his nerves. Just look at me: been here for the better part of a year, and even though my general existence is apparently 'an exercise in protracted patience', or whatever else people like to call it-"
"With good reason." Chiron didn't miss a beat.
"-he still hasn't zapped me into charcoal."
"Though I am ever and always tempted," he finished dryly, and then I yelped as he cuffed me upside the head for good measure. "Now introduce yourself properly, before you make a poor first impression."
"C'mon, Chiron." I rubbed the back of my head and smiled innocently. "I don't make poor impressions."
"Oh?"
"Nope. I make impressions, period. And lots of'em, all the time." I shrugged and turned back to Lavinia. "Good or bad or lukewarm in between - that's for everyone else to decide."
…
I know.
Hands down, the stupidest-sounding thing I've ever said.
It was so corny you could open a farm with it and make a killing selling home-grown, all organic goofy embarrassment for the rest of eternity, and the one after that, too.
Just... ugh.
But in my defence?
Lavinia laughed.
Not all that loud - really just this light, airy giggle - and suddenly I was trying my hardest not to grin like an absolute idiot.
Weird, that.
"That sounds very wise." She smiled at me, and her shoulders loosened a fraction - just enough for me to notice. "And for what it's worth, I think you're making a very good one."
"See, that's how I know you're pretty cool too."
...
I almost twitched in place.
Really, brain?
That's the best you could come up with?
For real?
If she noticed me dying inside, she was nice enough to ignore it, and I quickly switched tracks and held out my hand.
"Daniel Winchester. Student of Chiron."
Son of Apollon before even that, obviously, but name-dropping Dad so early in the morning was an amazing way to make casual conversation anything but.
"Lavinia - but you already knew that."
I sure did.
She hit me with that smile again, and for some reason, I almost missed the exact moment she reached out to take my hand.
"Pleased to-"
Then our fingertips brushed, and woah.
"-Ah!"
We snapped apart, and Chiron leaned forward at once.
No need to ask why - knowing him, he couldn't have missed it.
Somewhere deep inside of me, Incinerate Anthem had just... jolted.
Jumped.
Like it was reacting to something.
I'd never sensed anything quite like it, but whatever it was ended with both of us flinching back, and Lavinia staring at me with wide eyes.
She'd felt it too, and the tension in the air shifted all over again.
"What-?"
"Perhaps it's time to move on," Chiron said, voice rolling out like a thunderstorm that knew exactly when and where to rumble, and she couldn't not look at him then. "I imagine there is important business to get to, yes?"
A beat.
"... of course." Her eyes flickered back to me for a second, before refocusing on Chiron. "My apologies for the disruption."
"None are needed. Now then." He waved a hand, and the table was cleared and scoured clean in a single flash of muted light. "Shall we begin?"
Lavinia swallowed - quickly, quietly, but not hard to miss if you were looking for it - and nodded, before clearing her throat and beginning to speak.
"I've come here today, Lord Chiron, to request your aid in petitioning the gods of the Olympian council... on behalf of another."
She didn't give either of us a chance to cut in.
"A little over four months ago, Lord Phoebus Apollon and Lady Artemis Agrotera descended on the Land of Oz. They declared that a representative of Oz - one of the great Four Witches - had scorned Olympus itself, and that they intended to answer sin with judgement."
I blinked.
Four months ago-
...
I... knew what this was about, and an uneasy shiver ghosted down my spine.
The wizards of Oz.
Augusta.
"And judge they did."
No way.
Olympians or no, they wouldn't have gone overboard.
Dad mentioned 'reparations', but-
"The domains of the witches were razed to the ground. Incinerated beyond recovery. The people there... the innocents were spared, every last one-"
Oh thank Rhea.
I exhaled under my breath and deflated an inch, but Lavinia didn't.
"-but..." She hesitated, biting her lip and trying to gather her nerves in real time. Beneath the table, her fingers tightened on her knees.
"Oz... I won't pretend it was a paradise when I left, or that it ever was at all. Like Grauzauberer, Golden Dawn, and all the other great magician organisations that exist in the world, it's the powerful who rule first and foremost, and the rest scrabble in the dirt for all the leftover crumbs they can find-"
She hesitated, before firming herself again.
"- and by whatever means they can use to hold onto them. It's cutthroat and brutal and ugly from top to bottom, and morality in the games that follow is a polite fiction at best. Even then, there's always someone who stoops further down, sinking to lows so awful they shouldn't exist at all, let alone be mentioned in polite company."
I... didn't react to that - or the touch of bitterness in the words.
Neither did Chiron.
Not yet.
"But not everyone falls that far." She said, voice changing a shade - something halfway in between fragile and determined, with a pinch of hope to even things out. "And there is no rule that says people who made old mistakes can't be redeemed."
The way she said it...
"Is that right?" Chiron was faster on the draw, naturally, and interlocked his fingers as he gave her a level look. "And who is it you think is redeemed, or is otherwise capable or deserving of the chance to try?"
"I-"
She stopped, expression flickering with uncertainty.
"Well?" He prodded, and even though it wasn't harsh, it was insistent. "Tell me: on whose behalf do you intend to speak, Lavinia Reni?"
For a second, the question seemed to stump her.
Then her eyes caught mine again, and that determination seemed to kick right back in as she spoke.
"My teacher, Lord Chiron." She nodded carefully, firming up to prove a point. "Glenda Silverbrook, the Land of Oz's former Witch Of The South."
Another beat.
"Interesting." He murmured, nodding slowly. "I'm familiar with the name."
Whatever answer she was expecting, it wasn't that.
"You are?"
"Keeping abreast of magical communities beyond one's own is an excellent habit to get into." He answered calmly. "And even if I didn't practice what I preach, as the saying goes, recent events would have drawn my attention to Oz and its more infamous practitioners regardless."
Recent events being code for: "that one time a psychotic pyromaniac on an ego trip almost crème brûléed my students."
Just in case you haven't been paying attention.
"Oh." She didn't shrink back, but I could tell a part of her wanted to. "Then you know-?"
"More of the circumstances that prompted the gods' retaliation than you do? I would imagine so." Chiron shook his head as her footing seemed to waver, just a little. "I also know that said context is, as of this moment, irrelevant."
"I-"
She went to speak, but he raised a hand and stopped her cold.
"You are here for a reason, Miss Reni. Whatever drives you was grave enough to bring you all this way. Do not squander further time and effort defending a point before you've even made it."
...
The silence after that one didn't last long, but it landed with weight.
Not hard - just heavy, awkward and more than a little stilted.
Then-
"Cocytus."
I jerked upright, recognising the name.
The Greek River of wailing lamentation - and a world of punishment for the miserable dead.
Chiron, of course, didn't even blink.
"The magicians who were branded as sinners," Lavinia explained, with the kind of tone people only used when they hated every word they were saying and had to keep going anyway. "They were cast down into one of the Frozen Hells of Torment. Sentenced to spend the rest of their days suffering the weight of their crimes, before death sweeps them away into something... infinitely more final. Glenda was one of the first to go."
"I see."
The implied 'Go on' was loud and clear.
"She- I'm not a fool." She started, inhaling quietly as she course-corrected. "Glenda's lived a very long life, in a very dangerous world - longer than most ordinary people can dream of - and... she must have done things I can not defend. Terrible things. I know that."
"..."
"I also know that she's... important to me. The closest thing I have to family."
What now?
Maybe the surprise radiated outwards - weirder things have happened - because she looked up, steady and brittle all at once.
"I was orphaned young, and Glenda took me in. Took care of me. Trained me. I became a magician because of her, and the only reason I was accepted into Grauzauberer without dangerous people meddling in my life was because of her influence. Everything I have traces back to her, and I can't just leave her to that fate without speaking for her. Without proving that she's not heartless the way so many of the rest can be. At the very least... we never even said goodbye, and I-
Her voice wavered, almost cracking, and I flinched.
Couldn't help it, really.
"I have to see her again."
"And so you come here."
"Yes."
"Why?" Chiron asked placidly. "Spell it out for me. What is it you hope I can do for you, and why would I exert the effort to do so?
It was a good question.
Solid.
Maybe a little cold, too, but it wasn't meant to be cruel.
Practicality just tended to land like a sucker punch either way.
"Your reputation precedes you, lord Chiron. Your wisdom and grace are renowned, even in this quiet era." Lavinia answered quickly - and no way was that speech not rehearsed. "I don't know how to approach the Olympians to beg for clemency on Glenda's behalf. I wouldn't even know where to begin, but if I had your help in appealing to them... if you stood as an intermediary, then the impossible might narrow down to merely improbable, and I can work with that."
She nodded earnestly and clasped her hands on the table, so hard that her knuckles went white.
"I just need the chance."
"So you say." He offered. "And my reason for aiding you in this endeavour?"
"I... don't have anything specific to offer. Certainly nothing immediate that you likely don't possess or can get with effortless ease."
Chiron's brow rose another inch.
"A bold negotiation tactic, but I'm listening."
"But I can offer more with time." Lavinia pressed on. "I've spent years learning magic and honing my skills, and according to nearly any member of Grauzauberer worth asking, I am the most skilled magician of my generation."
Somehow, coming from her, that didn't sound smarmy.
If anything, the words were laced with that special kind of self-awareness that hits a person when they know they're going to sound arrogant as sin and they had to soldier on anyway - and she wasn't done, either.
"I work hard, I keep to my promises, and my word is my bond. If we make an agreement, I will do everything in my power to live up to the terms." Honest and dead serious, all the way through. "And I have plenty of power to spare."
The air shifted.
Just a shade, but the change was there, and none of us missed it.
"Oh?"
She didn't hesitate again.
"I am the current wielder of the Longinus-Class Sacred Gear, Absolute Demise."
...
...
...
Well then.
That's my out.
"Right." I stood up, pushing my chair back as I went, and the sudden tension popped like a soap bubble. "Excuse me. I have to... make a quick call."
Lavinia blinked, confused and a little wary, so I went for a reassuring smile.
A little forced around edges, maybe, but it's the thought that counts.
"You guys keep at it. I'll be right back."
I wasn't lying, either, and Chiron didn't even look at me as he nodded.
"You do that."
Lavinia even smiled back a little.
Just like before, it suited her.
"Good luck."
I threw her a thumbs-up and stepped down a hallway to the right just as Chiron started up again.
"Thank you for letting us know, Miss Reni. As for this hypothetical plan of yours... let's talk details."
...
I didn't go far... technically.
Crossing the house and jogging out the door was easy, and I flickered away the second I was out, vanishing in a flash of bursting sunlight.
When I reappeared, it was to the side of a quiet little footpath surrounded by trees and greenery on Filopappou Hill, not too far from the Acropolis itself.
The breeze was cool and grassy, and as far as I could sense, nothing much in the way of mortals too close for comfort.
Good.
This was Athens, so there were protections to stop supernatural weirdness from breaking the masquerade, but those things had in-built stress limits and it was better not to tempt fate anyway.
Every Greek hero learned that eventually.
I looked up at the sun and sighed, letting the feel of it and the harmless glare wash over my face as I breathed in, before finally closing my eyes and focusing outwards.
'Dad? You got a minute?'
The response was pretty much instant.
'For you?'
The presence was suddenly there, attentive and curling around me with a familiar, easy warmth.
Titanic and endless, but still safe.
'Always.'
And poof.
Apollon appeared just like I had, materialising out of a wave of wafting gold and stepping onto the grass beside me.
This time, I smiled for a whole other sort of reason.
"Morning, Dad."
"And a good one at that, isn't it?" He answered lightly, adjusting his cufflinks before reaching over to give my hair a good ruffle. "That said, while I'd never refuse such a happy surprise, I do remember us being on for lunch towards the end of the week, no?"
"We are." I'll explain later. "This is… something else."
"Then by all means - let's walk and talk," He tilted his head leadingly, and we both started moving up the hiking trail towards Filopappou's summit. "What ails you, my son?"
"Nothing ails me. See, there's this girl-"
"Ah, I see."
I paused.
"You do?"
"But of course." He threw his hand around my shoulders and pulled me in with a knowing smirk. "It's only natural, after all."
"It is?"
"Indeed. I'm happy you came to me with this, and don't you worry - your father will teach you everything you need to know about wooing yourself a partner-"
I nearly missed a step choking on air.
"Wait, what!?"
"-Or multiple partners, there's no need to be stingy-"
"Dad, no!"
"No?" His face creased with confusion so fake you could buy it at a dollar store with a quarter. "Then you don't find this girl attractive?"
"No-! Wait, yes!" My face went crimson. "But no!"
…She was very pretty.
He nodded solemnly, like he could read the stray, mortified thought right off the top of my head - and he probably could if he wanted to.
"I understand. You're a little confused, but you've got the spirit. We'll work on that. That said, you are at the age where you should know the basics, yes? Because if not, we'll have to have a certain Talk…"
And just like that, I went from red to green in no time flat.
"No."
"Tut tut. Mixed signals. We'll have to work on that too."
"Dad, I will pray if that's what it takes." I looked him dead in the eyes and begged shamelessly. "Please stop."
That - finally - got the god to laugh.
"Oh, very well. I won't push...for now."
Seriously?
I stared flatly, but that didn't wipe the smirk off his face.
"Did you really have to add that last part in?"
"It's the best you're getting, and you should be grateful for it."
I opened my mouth, raised a finger... and dropped it right back down again.
That was actually a good point.
"You know what? I'll take it."
"That would be wise."
"Moving on now - About that girl. Lavinia Reni."
"Yes?"
"She's a magician. From Grauzauberer."
His amusement faded, slowly replaced with something sharp and eerily quiet.
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. She's also from the Land of Oz." The focus grew colder at the name. "And a couple of other things too."
I speed-ran him through that cheery little mess of a conversation we'd all sat through, and by the time I got to the Longinus, I couldn't tell what he was thinking anymore.
At least not until he sighed and looked away, eyes flashing off-gold with deadpan irritation.
"I'd say I'm surprised, but what would be the point? It's always those insufferable Gears."
... Not what I was expecting, that.
"Is Absolute Demise really that big a deal?"
"On its own, and without an exceptional wielder?" He shook his head. "Hardly. It's no Telos Karma, and certainly no Spear of Destiny. The greatest annoyance it could have posed is a moot point now, and stems not from raw potential, but its very nature as a Longinus."
"In what way?"
"They're protected from conventional divination."
I stared in surprise.
"You mean you can't scry for them?"
He tilted his hand in that universal 'so-so' move.
"Not quite. The Thirteen are difficult to observe or path with any measure of simple foresight before they're awakened by the current host. A built-in defensive measure maintained by the Heavenly System that oversees their dispersal, and one part of what makes them so disruptive when left unchecked."
I didn't have to think hard to connect the dots there.
The answer was obvious.
"...Because otherwise, people wouldn't wait for the wielders to grow up and tap into all that dangerous power. They'd just go out of them early."
"Correct. The protections fade - or become less costly to overstep - as the wielders take up their gifted abilities, but most with any claim to intelligence will let those chosen mortals run freely where they can keep an eye out for them. Unless or until they overstep, that is, thereby voiding the risk of... complications."
Huh.
Good to know.
"All that aside, it is curious, isn't it?" His eyes flickered back to me with intent. "Regulus Nemea. Incinerate Anthem. And now Absolute Demise. All three in close proximity, and within mere months at that. It is... almost foreboding."
There was some meaning there - something complicated - but he didn't linger on it.
"As for the girl, and her plea..." The words came out low and musing. "I'm almost tempted to reject it out of hand. The Land of Oz was ravaged for a reason."
I winced, and he didn't miss it.
"You disapprove?"
"It's not that."
I really didn't.
The innocents were spared - anything else would have been impossible to stomach - and even Lavinia admitted the rest of the magicians were nothing but bad news.
Everything else...
Look, I'll never admit it out loud - not in a million years plus interest - but in a world this dangerous behind the scenes, a tiny part of me actually liked knowing I had Chiron and Dad and Aunt A on my side.
I didn't want anyone fighting my battles for me.
Ever.
Call it mandatory demigod pride.
But knowing someone was watching your back like that, ready to step in if things ever went really sideways…
Yeah. Didn't feel bad at all.
"The scope of it is a bit much, that's all. And the ugliness doesn't help."
"Ugly is too shallow a word." He snorted humourlessly. "Until we descended on that impudent little 'nation', I hadn't seen Artemis so wroth in decades."
"That bad?"
"Far worse. The very first of them you encountered shredded the life and soul of the former Nemean Lion's host, inadvertently contributing to the beast's imperfect incarnation." His sardonic smile darkened dangerously. "The second dared to harm you, just as she was finished slaughtering the rest to prove a point. Those experiences should set your expectations."
They did.
Augusta was a deranged nutter, and that glowing personality was all the rage where she came from.
Wonderful.
"Wanton cruelty, inhuman experimentation, and most anything in between... being cast into Cocytus was a well-deserved fate for all of them. I daresay the tormented men, women and children who were freed in the aftermath would tell you the same."
Yikes.
"I'll take your word for it."
"Good."
"So..." I trailed off quietly. "That's a no on Lavinia's request, then?"
I didn't have a horse in that race, but I could tell she was desperate, and... it rankled.
Even if Glenda Silverbrook didn't deserve it, her student care about her.
That had to mean something, right?
Apollon looked at me for a long second, before letting out a low, considering hum.
"If it were anyone else asking, I would refuse to indulge just about any of this. The very idea of any form of leniency to those I personally deem worthy of Cocytus, regardless of who appeals for it and why... under most circumstances, it would be a poor joke at best."
I perked up.
"But?"
"But," He breathed in lightly, glancing at me with this indecipherable look - so about the usual, then. "This involves you, to one extent or another, and it could be a good learning opportunity. In more ways than one."
"...Why does that sound so ominous?"
He huffed an amused breath and let the question slide off into silence for a bit. Instead of carrying on, we walked for another minute or so, right up until we crested over the path and reached the hilltop.
From there, the entire city sprawled outwards like a wave, all white buildings and terracotta rooftops surrounding the Acropolis and the Parthenon that glinted in the sun above it.
Downright panoramic.
Eventually, though, Dad got back to business.
"I won't speak to this girl on her mentor's fate, and neither will Artemis - not yet."
"Yet?"
"Yet." He agreed, and his voice suddenly hardened like iron. "Instead, with and only with Chiron's supervision, I will allow you both to descend to Cocytus."
What?
I turned to face him head-on.
"You're serious?"
"I am. If the girl wishes to plead for her mentor, let her speak to the woman first, and see her as she truly is, stripped of all glamours and deceit. Then we'll see if she still wishes to defend her fate."
It sounded fair out loud.
It'd probably look good on paper, too.
None of that stopped my stomach from twisting a little, because the words were just a little too knowing to pass off as nothing.
"You don't think this is going to go well for her, do you?"
"Some truths, my son, don't owe anyone comfort." He gave me a level - just neutral enough to back up the words. "They need only be honest, for better or for worse."
I had nothing to say to that.
"Anything else?"
"Yes."
Figures.
"Your devil friend - He won't accompany you to Cocytus." He said, and the explanation came too quickly for me to protest the point. "Chiron will give you the details, if you wish, but suffice it to say that taking a member of his species anywhere near Hades's domain would be an exceptionally poor decision to make."
"...The devils did a stupid there too?"
"Well done. You've just summarized most of their collective history in a single phrase. Truly, my pride knows no bounds."
We both snorted, and that uneasiness gnawing at the back of my head faded away - enough that we passed the rest of that little time in easy silence.
Towards the end, though... things got a little more interesting.
It started when Apollon was just about to leave.
"No more questions, then?" He gave me a last look, and I shrugged. "Good. Then it's about time you got back to your teacher and his guest."
He wasn't wrong.
If they hadn't wrapped up by now, I could slide right back into that conversation and tell Chiron that we had a field trip to get ready for.
Then my Dad cracked a smile.
"And this time, try and have a quiet adventure if you can help it. At the very least, with Chiron at your side, you shouldn't be running into any more Longinus - what was that?"
I don't know how it happened.
No idea - not one.
But it did.
He started talking, my mind went places, and the next thing I knew, he caught something off my face and stopped cold.
Naturally, I panicked.
"What was what?
"The way you reacted just now. You know something."
"So does everyone else on the planet, Dad." I laughed nervously and internally cursed my brain out in ways that didn't even qualify as human language anymore. "Gonna have to be more specific."
His eyes narrowed.
"Son."
Crap.
It wasn't even threatening - just pure, parent-classic 'I know, and you know that I know, so fess up you little punk' energy.
Terrifying, right?
"What aren't you telling me?
Many things.
Seriously, so many things.
Secrets that I was getting closer and closer to clueing him in on every day, because at this point, residual wariness was starting to shift into guilt and I hated how it felt.
Still.
I couldn't tell him yet.
Not so soon, and not in the middle of this.
Not until I planned it out properly - That was a fact.
And yet, even though I knew that...
I still went with my gut, opened my mouth, and threw out the first deflection I could think of.
"I know who this generation's Red Dragon Emperor is."
"..."
"..."
"…"
"… Would you like to elaborate on that?"
"Uh... not particularly, but thank you for asking?"
"Daniel."
Damn it.
"Sorry. Worth a shot."
It really wasn't.
Gods, why do I even talk?
"Well?"
"There's not much to say. I've been practicing with my scrying and trying to get some more use out of Incinerate Anthem, and when I mix the two, things get interesting."
A technical truth that had nothing to do with anything I was saying, but we'd played this game before.
Odds are, he knew exactly what I was doing here, but he didn't push, and I didn't question it.
That could come later.
"And the Red Dragon Emperor?"
"I actually don't know all that much about him." Almost completely honest there. "His name is Issei Hyoudou, and he lives in some little town in Japan. Kuho?"
Apollon's eyes flashed gold, for just a split second.
"Kuoh Town. A small footnote in the Nerima Ward of the greater Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture."
"...Sure? I wouldn't know?" I shrugged a little helplessly. "That's about it. I think he's a few years younger than me, and if that holds then he probably hasn't been recruited or even awakened the Boosted Gear yet-"
"Recruited?"
Ah.
I grimaced.
He didn't miss it.
"Recruited?" The repetition was very, very pointed. "Recruited by who, exactly?"
"..."
Yeah, there was no sugar coating this next bit.
"A devil."
"..."
You could have heard a pin drop after that.
Even the wind seemed to hold its breath, and I only managed not to cringe that much harder through sheer force of will.
"Again, it hasn't happened yet, and for what it's worth, the devil who recruits him is on the up and up."
Which wasn't the problem, but I was obligated to play just a little nice there, given that she was Sairaorg's cousin and all.
That counts for something...until proven otherwise.
"..."
"... Dad, I know dramatic silences are pretty on-brand for phenomenally powerful beings in our world, but you're really starting to freak me out here."
That, at least, got a response.
He blinked, snapping out of the marble-statue impression he'd been holding for the last thirty-something seconds.
"Ah. You'll have to forgive me."
His eyes panned out, passing over the city, the Acropolis and lingering on the Parthenon for a minute before shifting back to me again.
"It's not often that I'm so... thoroughly blindsided. Foresight is a point of pride for me, believe it or not."
I would have cracked a grin at the joke if I hadn't noticed how faraway he still sounded.
Like his mind was somewhere else entirely.
Call me crazy, but that didn't leave me feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
"You know you shouldn't take my word for it, right? I barely know anything about the guy."
Besides things I'd rather forget for the rest of forever, and then some.
"And even if I did, the future isn't set in stone, right?"
Unless the Fates got involved, but to hell with that noise.
Nobody liked them anyway.
"No." He agreed quietly, eyes distant and locked in thought. "No, it most certainly is not."
"Dad?"
"It's nothing. Merely an idle thought or two. We can talk it over another time. For now," He reached over and gently flicked my temple. "You have other matters to attend to."
Of course.
Chiron and Lavinia were waiting.
I still hesitated.
Dropping a bomb like that and leaving without giving him more in the way of answers...
It didn't feel right.
There was nothing I could do about it now, but...
...
Maybe the lies - direct or otherwise - were eating at me more than I wanted to admit.
"I..."
Like every other time before, he must have seen something when he looked at me, and the distance in his gaze softened into something that was all sorts of fond.
"What are you waiting for? Go." He patted me on the shoulder and gave me a little shove. "We'll have plenty of time to catch up when you're done."
...
Fine.
"Right." I nodded firmly and shoved everything else to the back of my head- game face time. "I'll get right on that."
One conversation to go, and then a trip to the River of Damnation, and all the tormented souls within.
How hard could it be?
I prepared to teleport back-
"And don't forget: if you want that girl to like you back, confidence is key."
-andfortheloveof-!
"Dad!"
By the time I whirled around, he'd already vanished, laughter melting into the fading breeze.
...
Elsewhere:
The messenger stepped into the room with only the faintest of tremors wracking his spine.
The reaction couldn't be helped.
Inside, two figures sat across from one another.
The first was an eerily unassuming middle-aged man in a suit, dark hair neatly combed, and an expression of blank, easy calm resting across his face.
The other...
He could not be seen at all, shrouded in shadow, and for all that the vague silhouette matched…
He was not human.
Far from it.
Together, their very presence soaked the room in a sense of effortless, blood-curdling danger.
"Well?"
"We've tracked the girl down, sir." The messenger swallowed. "Athens."
"Ah." The man frowned. "The centaur's domain. How unfortunately problematic."
His companion said nothing - not quite yet.
"Sir, with respect… we can still seize this opportunity."
The man in the suit raised an eyebrow, and the messenger straightened, emboldened by the attention.
"We have four of our elite hunter squads at the ready, and support from... the creatures. If we strike quickly, when the target least suspects it-"
Then he died.
No warning. No chance to react.
Gone between one breath and the next, reduced to less than dust in a column of searing light that incinerated him and punched a burning hole through the wall behind him with a crackling hiss.
The man in the suit didn't flinch at his subordinate's fate.
Instead, he aimed a mild, unimpressed glare over across the room.
"I thought I warned you not to strike out against my subordinates, Fallen."
"Oh, spare me." The dry snort batted the reprimand away, and the finger that fired off that killing blow dropped down in a lazy arc. "That one obviously had a death wish. I just cut out the middle-man and helped him over the finish line, just like he wanted - wasn't that nice of me?"
"I thought you and your team enjoyed a good challenge."
"No, Mister Section Head." The title came out dripping with irreverence.
"I enjoy a good fight. A rush that makes the blood run before the kill. That doesn't make me suicidal. I was in Greece in '41, when the humans played at their war and the rest of us skirmished across a hundred battlefields the world over. I saw firsthand what that centaur did to the idiots who tried stirring up trouble in his backyard, and anyone who thinks going up against that would end well is too damned stupid to let live."
A pause.
"I wasn't aware the factions of the Grigori had battled the Trainer of Heroes."
"They didn't. A few idiots went looking for trouble and it found them right back, and if the brass had tried to order me into throwing my hat in that nightmare of a ring, I would walked long before the boss split from Azazel and the rest of his Cadre."
Another snort echoed between them.
"Don't poke the horse if you know what's good for you. It won't end well."
The man in the suit considered that carefully, but he was undeterred - Need must, and there was work to be done.
"The girl is important to the Agency. With both the Witches out of our reach, she might very well possess valuable information. If nothing else, her sacred gear-"
"I know. I didn't say we let her go - I'm a professional, and the boss expects results."
He did indeed.
"We only have to sidestep the centaur."
"And you consider that a realistic goal?"
After all that waffle?
"Not even close. One sidestep, and things will go to hell in a handbasket and we're all screwed, but if we time it just right..."
He trailed off leadingly, and the man in the suit contemplated his words carefully.
Great risk. Great reward.
What to do?
"..."
"..."
Were he a lesser man, the Section Head would have sighed.
The answer was obvious - Needs must, and there was work to be done.
"...What do you have in mind?"
And the Fallen Angel laughed.
...
Chiron watching Dan and Lavinia interact:
Spoiler: Spoiler
Apollon on the outside when Dan mentions the devils recruiting the Red Dragon Emperor:
Spoiler: Spoiler
Apollon on the inside when Dan mentions the devils recruiting the Red Dragon Emperor.
Spoiler: Spoiler
As always, leave your comments and ideas, and if you don't like it, please be courteous. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Elglave, iLunx, Frostbiteme13 and 666 othersFirewillreignMonday at 6:54 AMReader modeNewAdd bookmark Threadmarksdasstan:)Monday at 6:54 AMNewAdd bookmark#6,951This is entirely conjecture on my part, but I'm going to share with the class my headcanon for how the mythical side of things works in PJO:
Humans came about through a natural process. The gods came about because of human belief. Yes, even capital g-God. Faith works like gravity. Eventually enough faith is placed into an idea that it starts working like a star, and produces its own energy. This is the point where shit gets funky, because now you have gods able to influence reality in the form of miracles, further bolstering their own faith.
Human faith clearly shapes the personalities of the gods: see the Roman/Greek split personality issue.
Gods have inertia. The longer one idea of who or what they are exists, the harder it is to change them. See Yahweh of the Old Testament, who was all fire and brimstone and cut off your dick skin, and flood the world, vs the hippy "love your neighbor" Yahweh of the New Testament. (Aside thought: it's entirely possible that said God also suffers from a personality split. The Jews worship the God of the Torah, who is essentially the God of the Christian Old Testament, who is also essentially the God that Muslims worship. This would, amusingly, also mirror the tripartite nature of the Trinity as agreed by the Nicene Creed. Humans sure love their threes.)
The rise of science as a means to explain natural phenomena leads to the rise of secularism, which leads to hard check to faith. When enough people know that lightning happens when the electrical charge between two objects is enough to overcome the insulative property of the atmosphere, it robs the mystique and grandeur out of Zeus throwing a lightning bolt. And when he does throw one that doesn't behave as it should, it's called a freak lightning strike.
Now don't take this to mean that I believe the gods themselves to be fundamentally powerless. No, they have power. The collective belief of their followers, their impact on society and their own ability to act are all tools they can use to stay around. I also think the gods themselves are... Kind of ignorant about their own nature. From their point of view, the creation myths in their religions are, in fact, true. During their creation, they retcon themselves in to fit what actually happened. Why do so many mythologies have a giant flood? Because there was a giant flood. The story of how the flood happened is what changes from myth to myth.
I think this is why the Magicians were able to seal the gods of Egypt. They understood enough about the underlying metaphysical architecture to take advantage and use the nature of godhood against them. Strike when the religion is fading, when another religion is coming in and is the new hotness and you have the perfect opportunity lock them away. (Interestingly, with the way I've headcanoned this, the act of sealing them also prevents them from fading. They can't dissipate because the Magicians seals, and the Magicians belief in those seals -- and the beings being sealed -- keeps them in homeostasis.)
The goal with my headcanon is to try to keep it consistent with canon, only filling in the areas that aren't explored by Riordan for the obvious reasons: You can't treat the dominant religions on the planet as characters in your book without facing a massive backlash and not making any money.
That said, how do I explain the concept of primordial beings? Basically: the Primordials are a tulpa's tulpa. Man thinks God(s) into existence. The gods come prepackaged with their own histories which they believe to be true. The gods then impose their belief on natural phenomena. The earth becomes Gaia. The infinite blackness of space is Nyx. What existed before becomes Chaos. The Primordials themselves are the gods interacting with, and mythologizing Layer 1 (objective truth: atoms, electrons, the building blocks of the universe).
But dasstan, why is the God of the Bible treated as something other and more powerful? The Abrahamic God functions differently because the core tenet of His followers' belief is Aseity. They believe he comes from himself. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is his own primordial.
Again, I'm not advocating that others adopt this headcanon. I'm just saying that it's mine, and I believe that it's pretty compliant with the Riordanverse canon. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:kinglugia, Lindipthian, M_Darkwood and 111 othersDionysus01Getting sticky.Monday at 6:59 AMNewAdd bookmark#6,952Firewillreign said:Beware The Chicken.
HAHAHA I see what you did there. Nice reference as a reward here's another
Me as I read this: I understood that reference-Steve Roger's. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:kinglugia, Fdexz04, computer47 and 45 othersTo-be-hero-XThe number one heroMonday at 7:00 AMNewAdd bookmark#6,953Thank you for the chapter
Firewillreign said:Know when to be brave, and when to very heroically retreat - also known as running away. Dignity is optional.
If it looks harmless, it's not. If it looks dangerous, it's definitely worse - like chickens.
Beware The Chicken.Click to expand...LMAO you sly dog I see what you did there
Firewillreign said:Apparently, old Thunder Gramps really didn't like it when folks played fast and loose with the sacred laws of hospitality.You know for all the crap he does gotta give him credit on that at least
Firewillreign said:I... knew what this was about, and an uneasy shiver ghosted down my spine.
The wizards of Oz.
Augusta.
"And judge they did."
No way.
Olympians or no, they wouldn't have gone overboard.
Dad mentioned 'reparations', but-
"The domains of the witches were razed to the ground. Incinerated beyond recovery. The people there... the innocents were spared, every last one-"
Oh thank Rhea.Click to expand...NGL I almost feel dan and Chiron mood rise and fall as she talks Man Chiron blood pressure is seriously high right now
Firewillreign said:"Indeed. I'm happy you came to me with this, and don't you worry - your father will teach you everything you need to know about wooing yourself a partner-"
I nearly missed a step choking on air.
"Wait, what!?"
"-Or multiple partners, there's no need to be stingy-"
"Dad, no!"
"No?" His face creased with confusion so fake you could buy it at a dollar store with a quarter. "Then you don't find this girl attractive?"
"No-! Wait, yes!" My face went crimson. "But no!"Click to expand...dan should hear his father out bro once dated all the muses at the same time because he could
But again it's will known fact Apollo Lovers don't live long hopefully Dan has better luck than his last