Scene 1
"Hello, Ares. Polo called a meeting."
I grabbed his armored shoulder before he realized I was inside his camp.
The Bow of Heaven served as the link, but I powered the movement with shadows so I could avoid breaking Father's barrier and ruining his mood.
Ares turned too late.
"You bas—"
Then the world blinked.
To me, it was nothing.
To everyone else, traveling with me felt wrong. Polo described it once as being dragged through a heavy, oppressive place where predators watched from every side. He said the paths were too crowded with things that should not have been able to see gods.
I still thought he was being dramatic.
Ares clearly disagreed.
"Ugh! I'm going to kill you when I get up!"
He clutched his head hard enough that the glass around Mother's yard nearly shattered from his war laws reacting in pain.
I placed both hands on his head before he could trigger a War Cry by accident.
"Calm down."
I visualized the white flames of purification Ten gave me and placed them gently along his back. The flame spread carefully, following the armor instead of burning through him.
The three Cyclops brothers had crafted Ares's armor to grow with his divine power. It was already tied to his natural domain, and if he ever gave it away, it would still carry the shape of him.
So I used the chance.
Quietly, I carved a rune Ten had taught me into the back of the armor, giving Ares access to a smaller expression of the white flame's effect.
Not enough to make him Ten's.
Not enough to expose the secret.
Just enough to keep him from ruining himself before he understood what he was.
"HERMES!"
Mother's scream ripped me out of my focus.
I looked between her and Ares, who had finally passed out.
Then I pulled on my domain faster than her hand could swipe me up for giving a rival aid.
The path opened.
I ran.
Scene 2
"Father, before you react—"
Zeus launched a lightning bolt from his hand faster than Fate could show me.
For one clear instant, I understood the limit of my eyes.
The result processed only after the thunderclap tore through the court and left my ears ringing.
I shut my mouth.
"Shut it, boy."
Zeus did not look away from Ares.
"Hera. Where is Hermes?"
Mother watched him.
For once, her eyes made a decision in front of all of us.
"You would know better, Zeus."
The two of them held each other's stare.
The air between them tightened until even the gods in the rear lowered their eyes.
Zeus finally glanced back down at Ares.
His naturally forming War God lay unconscious on the floor, armor still radiating faint white heat from whatever Hermes had carved into the back of his divine symbol.
"Send him to the treasury when he returns," Zeus said. "That is his only reward. One item."
I held my tongue.
Then Zeus's eyes locked onto mine.
They carried a rare calmness, the kind that made my heart slow down just to keep me from speaking.
One hand touched my shoulder.
Fate nearly snapped loose to protect me.
Before it could, his hand lifted in the same motion and he passed by me.
I remained still until he left.
Only then did I breathe.
Scene 3
"Ares, do I need to speak, or will you admit you've been wasting time in Gaia's domain?"
I sat at the table while Ares avoided my eyes.
Hermes had been missing for ten years.
Clearly afraid of what our parents might do.
He had even sent my Bow back and closed his connection to the domain. He almost severed it completely. If I had not moved quickly enough, even the slight hold he maintained on it would have been lost.
"Apollo, don't press him too far," Dionysus said. "Mother already ordered him to remove it and actually learn something."
He said it as if he were helping Ares.
All he did was make the muscle-brained idiot lower his head further.
"Whatever," I said. "Starting today, you'll take Hebe with you to the battlefield. I'll receive the direct reports so we can stabilize this losing war. We haven't even spent a thousand years fighting, and we're already on the brink of losing the battle for Gaia."
Ares's jaw tightened.
I tossed a bundle of animal skins onto the table.
"Here. This is the only aid I'll offer you after Hermes invested in you. Be thankful Grandmother is keeping everyone back from studying what he carved into your armor."
Ares stared at the bundle like it was poison.
It contained my insights from Fate.
More specifically, everything I had managed to find on Atlas's Strength domain. One of the missing keystones of Father's fate. Hidden even from Fate's eyes unless one knew where to press.
Hebe, now a High Minor rank Music Goddess, would be the best person to keep this bull focused. Not because she was stronger than him, but because she could keep a rhythm in his head long enough for him to stop wasting every lesson.
"Come on, Dionysus."
Dio looked up.
"We need to figure out where Ten is. Since you have a habit of finding them, lead me to him."
I stood and headed for the entrance.
Finding Tenebris had become harder than ever. Even my eyes had stopped finding the clues they normally caught before the war.
"You're expecting too muc—"
I manifested a blade of wind and placed it against Dio's neck.
"Finish that statement and I'll cut your tongue myself, brother."
His smile froze.
"Say another lie, and I'll push you into the open using Juris this time instead of Tenebris forcing you halfway to our table as Fateless."
The blade pressed closer.
Purple chaos-tainted blood trickled down his throat.
He had finally found a chance to play weak after Rhea's aid. If he fought back now, that excuse would expose itself as his own nonsense. A mimicry of a domain he barely understood.
Grandmother had remained neutral across the board.
I had not forgotten that.
"Testy," Dio said. "Fine. I'll play along with you, Pollllooo."
He stretched my name too long.
I pressed the blade deeper.
"Don't test me, brother. If Artemis and I lose this war, I'll guarantee Hermes is the only remaining Sky piece with my own hands. Whether it's you or Ares."
For once, Dio lost his words.
He shut his mouth.
Then we left the random temple we had been using as home.
Scene 4
"Sister. I see you've grown far past your big brother."
I entered her newly established palace.
No.
Palace was the wrong word.
It was closer to an empress compound built on the Moon, shaped for a queen who had already decided she would never bow her head again.
The former Moon Titan wife of Hyperion had left her mark here, but Artemis had changed it into something colder and sharper.
"Big brother," Artemis said. "Why did you bring these idiots to my moon?"
She looked past me at Dionysus and Ares.
Both of them understood quickly that this was not the place to make new enemies.
I inspected her more carefully.
Her brown and silver hair had shifted, now carrying blue and black through it. A suit of armor radiated laws of Night and Stars around her body, and the moonlight inside the palace bent toward her as if asking permission to shine.
"I need your aid locating two people," I said. "Hermes and Tenebris."
Her focus returned to me.
"Hermes isn't too hard. Tenebris is a no."
My warm smile vanished before I could stop it.
"Why only Hermes? I can find him if I put in enough effort. Tenebris is my real issue, as you know."
Artemis stood.
The moonlight in her palace dimmed when she waved her hand.
"I am in my own war with Athena. She hasn't appeared yet, but I refuse to be second place for the Star Queen seat. So I can't help you pursue Tenebris or Juris. Chronos knows Juris is already a headache by himself."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Hermes, on the other hand, is on his own journey. Some of the Primals want us to become concepts, not just domains. He is in the process of understanding motion and speed. If he wants to be in the race for any throne, then he has to make his own moves. Not get dragged into pointless fights in my father's domain by you three idiots."
So she had been watching us.
Her eyes sharpened even more at the memory of our attempt to mislead her Sea Folk.
"Which Primal is protecting him from Fate?" I asked. "Even if he's training, I should be able to find Hermes through my domain."
I left her argument about Athena alone.
For now.
It was the first time I had heard it said so openly.
"Karma," Artemis said. "As Uncle Hades has already said, Zeus is not lacking enemies among the gods or the Primals."
I sucked in air through my teeth.
Karma putting her own hands on the board was not a minor problem.
"Then can you promise to stay out of the Heir War?" I asked.
It was a reach, but if she agreed, it would keep us from becoming the biggest losers of this war.
"No, Apollo."
Her answer came too quickly.
"Unlike you, I'm not conflicted by how much I desire the Sky seat over the Ocean. The Ocean has my seat ready whenever I'm ready. Even Ten and Juris were dragged into this stupidity by Zeus and Dionysus provoking an issue."
Dio's smile widened as if he heard praise.
"Cousinnnn Artemis," he said, "that would mean you haven't tried to pressure Juris into self-limiting himself by not supporting them, only to be told you aren't war material."
The moonlight dimmed further.
Her hair gained more blue.
"Dio," Artemis said, "how does it feel to get slapped by Prometheus's temple?"
I paused.
Then I looked at her in bewilderment.
She knew too much.
I had suspected the origins of Juris's staff in the shape of a tower were connected to the Titan of Wisdom, but Artemis said it like a fact she had already confirmed.
"That's enough, you two," I said. "Forgive us for intruding, sister. I'll visit once this Heir War is decided."
"Yes, Apollo," Artemis said. "Let's see if you'll actually take the lead or not. After all, we're still a team. Just one that includes these two idiots."
She pushed us out of her domain.
The palace sealed behind us with shadows from the void.
Ares, proving why words failed him so often, thought it was a good idea to grab a handful of that void energy.
He jumped back almost instantly.
The surface of his palm had already eroded down to bone, revealing his red skeleton.
"Stop that before you kill yourself, Ares," I said, dragging him back. "We don't have ten thousand years to wait for you to recover your divine form."
Then we began our journey back to Olympus.
Scene 5 — Juris
"…"
"Are you going to tell me, or just keep ignoring me?"
Hermes dashed around my study, picking up every item he crossed and placing it somewhere else after checking it.
I watched him move.
Barely.
He had finally been released from my father's direct lessons, and somehow, his first decision was to sneak into my domain and run wild.
The white flame Ten gave him let him enter an otherwise sealed domain.
Many Primals would be hard pressed to invade this place openly without a backdoor.
Hermes did it while barely stepping into Mid Minor rank.
His first true step toward a complete domain was already annoying enough to make me regret every future interaction we would have.
"Tenebris," I said through our connection, "come grab this idiot, please."
I pushed Hermes out of my study.
My older brother was better suited for handling this bundle of energy.
"Nooo!"
Hermes stopped instantly and grabbed both of my hands faster than I could react.
If nothing else, his domain was already proving how deadly it would become. He could move faster than gods a rank above him, not just those a tier higher.
"If I go back, Father will punish me for sure."
I stared at him.
Then sighed.
"Fine. Styx, come grab this fool and teach him something, please."
I cut my connection to Tenebris.
He had barely reacted when I called him, but the moment I decided to send Hermes to Styx, I felt his direct attention land on the situation.
A projection of dark water flowed into my office.
"As you wish, Prince Juris," Styx said.
Her river curled around Hermes's ankles.
"Come along, Prince Hermes. There is much to learn about connecting different realms together."
"Styx? Who is th—"
The river pulled.
Hermes vanished mid-sentence, dragged through Styx's own pathways into her Domain of Dark Rivers. Even a slippery god needed ground to flee from, and Styx had given him none.
I watched the last ripple fade from my floor.
"Good luck and good riddance."
Silence returned to my study.
Finally.
I refocused on the second layer of scars across my soul and held Chronos's pendant in one hand. Its weight fought the pull trying to drag me back into the timelines.
The memories this time had touched Demi-God levels.
They called themselves Explorers.
I closed my eyes and dove deeper, submerging myself once more into the silence of my study.