by Lizzy Ford
At long last, when I felt like I’d been walking forever, I heard the sound of a car approaching. I shifted to the side of the road and waited, leaning on the cane and anxious to be out of the forest and back to the world, where all my questions would be put to rest.
A black van with tinted windows came into view around a curve. I watched it, puzzled as to what anyone was doing in such an isolated location. If it were Adonis, he would have driven our car, unless circumstances forced him to steal a van. Shifting to the side of the road, in case it wasn’t Adonis, I grew wary when it slowed and then stopped.
The window rolled down to reveal a familiar face, and I laughed, startled.
“You need a ride?” Theodocia, the High Priestess of Artemis and foster mother to Phoibe – and also the very woman who had flung me out of a helicopter – asked with such reluctance, I laughed harder.
When I’d recovered, I shook my head. “You’ve thrown me out of one vehicle. I’ll take my chances on my own.”
She sighed and looked away. “It wasn’t entirely me who did it.”
I grinned, always entertained by how the Fates unfurled the future. Theodocia had dark circles beneath her eyes, and her hair was mussed. Her air was strangely charged, an energy I innately recognized, because it was similar to mine.
“Does Artemis or Thanatos have you on a leash?” I asked cautiously.
“I’m honestly not sure anymore.” She slumped against the steering wheel. “Artemis helped me find you but Thanatos …” She shuddered.
Studying her, I glanced around and made a decision. “Get out. I’m driving,” I said.
Her gaze went to my leg. “Can you drive?”
“I don’t trust you not to throw me out, so if you want something from me, then I’m driving.”
Theodocia placed the van in park and shifted over into the passenger seat. I climbed in, relieved to sit on something that wasn’t the ground, and closed my door.
It took some jarring adjustment, but I figured out quickly how much pressure I could use with my hurt leg as I turned the van around. Feeling Theodocia’s eyes on me, I ignored her, more concerned with getting away from the damn forest.
“Are you upset at me?” she asked finally, as we drove deliberately down the pothole filled road.
“You threw me out of a helicopter. What do you think?” I asked with a faint smile.
She was quiet.
“I survived,” I informed her and then chuckled. “I’m actually not mad, now that you returned for me. I’ve been dealing with your temper for a few years. We’re like an old married couple. I may have been angry while lying helplessly on the forest floor, but I’m over it.”
“I have the urge to kill you again.”
“Thanatos’ gift will probably make you more homicidal than you’ve ever been.” It took effort not to smile at her misery. “You’re going to need to learn to control those urges and either avoid or master yourself in situations where his influence over you becomes powerful enough to take over.”
“Because I’m his tool now.”
“Exactly. Except, I think he’s given you some autonomy to use his gift for your own purposes as well. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the God of Death had a vendetta against me, which means you’ve been harboring a great deal of resentment towards me if you came to the conclusion I needed to be expelled from the helicopter.”
“I have been resentful, but probably not for the reasons you think. I am grateful for your assistance since you helped me find Phoibe,” she said. Theodocia gripped her head in her hands and squeezed. “Artemis’ touch is so gentle. Thanatos feels like he’s constantly smashing a bat against my brain.”
“I might be able to ease the side effects of his gift,” I said slowly. “But it’ll cost you. I may not be angry about the helicopter incident, but I’m done helping you for free.”
She said nothing.
“Did the Queen and your son make it to safety?” I asked. Despite the often rocky relationship I’d shared with Theodocia as I mentored her, I liked her. She was fiercely protective of Phoibe, intelligent and powerful in the way of a High Priestess who held the ardent favor of a goddess.
“They did, thanks,” she replied. “They’re at her secondary palace in DC.”
“On the compound of the Sacred Triumvirate?”
“Yes.”
I smiled. “Assuming you can get us onto the compound, I’ll help you. Now, tell me everything you’ve seen and heard about what’s happened.”
Resting her head back against the seat and closing her eyes, Theodocia obeyed and filled me in on what they knew of the state of the world. She calmed as she spoke. I didn’t know if Thanatos’ influence over her was relenting, or if the exhaustion displayed in her features was taking a toll.
She had nothing remotely positive to impart about last night and the state of Washington DC. If not for the Oracle’s assurances that the compound would remain secure, I would have been worried for Phoibe’s sake. But it made sense the Oracle with the foreknowledge had arranged for more defenses around the compound. After all, she was located there as well.
When Theodocia finished, I was both relieved to know the entire world was not doomed and apprehensive about the timing of the second apocalyptic event of which the Oracle spoke. The need to meet with her was abruptly forefront in my thoughts, ahead of seeing Phoibe again, and ahead of pursuing my own agenda to cash in a favor from a queen.
“Do you have a cell?” I asked Theodocia.
“I don’t but I saw one in the glove compartment. It belonged to the thugs who tried to murder us,” she replied archly and opened the glove box. She pulled it out and handed it to me.
With my attention split between the holey road and the cell, I managed to dial Adonis’ phone with only two mistypes. As if knowing it was me, despite the unknown number, he answered on the first ring.
“Hey,” I greeted him with a smile. “I’m safe and headed towards the Sacred Triumvirate’s central compound in DC. I need you to meet me there.”
“Will do,” he replied.
“Are you well? Any problems last night? I understand there’s a great deal of unrest in the city.”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
From another man, I wouldn’t wonder what that meant. But coming from Adonis, the calm statement could indicate anything from he sat at home bored all night to he set fire to the entire block and massacred several dozen people. Adonis was the kind of friend everyone needed, whose loyalty was assured and whose methods knew neither conscience nor limits.
“Glad to hear,” I said, amused by my imagination.
“You are hurt?”
Adonis’ ability to read people never failed to impress me.
“I am,” I replied. “But I’m healing up. Took a bit of a tumble last night.” I glanced at the High Priestess, who pursed her lips at me. “I should be fine by the time you arrive.”
“Should I bring your clothes?”
I hesitated, uncertain what exactly our situation would be once we were on the compound. After a moment of internal debate, the opportunist in me made the call. “Yes. Bring yours as well, anything of value you don’t want left behind, and Mrs. Nettles.”
“Got it. I will head there now.”
I hung up, satisfied. No matter what it took, who I had to sweet talk, or who I had to send Adonis after, we weren’t leaving the one safe place in DC.
“Mrs. Nettles?” Theodocia lifted her eyebrows at me.
I smiled and then laughed. It wasn’t possible to explain to outsiders about Mrs. Nettles, who was too special for anyone to understand, until they met her. But she was a part of our dysfunctional family. She preferred Adonis but often trailed me around the house as well. “She’s our … pet,” I replied.
My focus shifted forward. We were drawing close to a main road – and it was packed with cars three deep across the two-lane road while families carrying everything they owned trudged through the ditches on foot. Everyone
was headed south.
“This is nothing compared to the Beltway,” Theodocia said. She reached over and grabbed the cell phone from the cup holder where I’d placed it after talking to Adonis. “I had a military escort to get this far.”
I eased the van up to the main road and parked it, listening as she called someone and requested assistance. My eyes followed the long lines of refugees heading towards the only major city to survive part one of the apocalypse, and I couldn’t help wondering how anything could be worse. Complete annihilation – where no one survived – would at least eliminate suffering. The Oracle’s mention of the double omega prophecy puzzled me. How could two apocalyptic events be better than one?
Theodocia hung up. “They want us to go two miles back the way we just came. The military lost a high value individual earlier when their chopper was overwhelmed by desperate refugees.”
“Think you can handle another ride in a helicopter without throwing me out?” I asked.
“We’ll find out.”
I turned the van around and did as instructed, stopping once more when we were two miles away from the road.
The audible thump of rotators soon reached us. Theodocia and I got out of the van, and waited. My curiosity as to how the helicopter was going to land, when there wasn’t room enough for it, was soon answered.
Two soldiers in black rappelled down from the helicopter and strapped us quickly into harnesses. We were pulled up and whisked away, above the tops of trees, past a flood of refugees blocking roads, over barricades being erected just inside the Beltway encircling DC, and into the heart of the city.
The city may have been spared the worst, but, from above, it appeared as though it had been hit by a tornado. The brilliant lights of first responder vehicles were everywhere. Some parts of the city were jammed with people, others completely empty. The businesses and stores had all been decimated by looting and desperate people hoarding food and other essentials. Trails of glass, goods and bodies littered every major intersection throughout the center of the district.
DC wasn’t much better off than the rest of the world. I wondered how the other two large cities in Maryland – Annapolis and Baltimore – had fared without the presence of military and SISA, let alone the smaller towns.
Sometime later, we landed in the middle of the compound, not far from a towering temple dedicated to Zeus whose pristine white walls that reflected the sunlight. The helicopter left us and lifted off once we were clear, as if more people were in need of rescuing.
Theodocia and I looked around, neither of us familiar with the seat of power of the world. The massive central field in which we stood contained a large garden area, half a dozen temples, various sidewalks and bridges over small streams. It was hedged by stately buildings with pillars and glowing lights demarking the doorways.
“My friend is going to be at the gate soon,” I said to Theodocia.
“I’ll call it in. What’s his name?” she asked.
I replied, half-listening as she gave instructions to whomever was on the other end of the call. My mind was on the Oracle. Where exactly was she? It would take me an eternity to search each building on the compound to find her!
“I fulfilled my end of the bargain,” Theodocia said, facing me.
I met her gaze. “It’s almost like you don’t trust me,” I murmured.
“We both know I don’t.”
“I never understood why. All I’ve ever done is drop everything I was doing to advise you when you call. We share the same central concern: Phoibe.”
She looked away. “I know. But sometimes, Artemis reveals things to me I wish she wouldn’t.”
“About me?”
“About everything.”
“I can’t guess what she said about me to make you despise me.”
“She said you’d betray us.”
I fell quiet.
“That’s why I resent you.” Theodocia looked at me and drew a breath. “Because I’ve had no one else to turn to except for the person who will betray me. Because Phoibe adores you, even after all these years, and you’ll betray her.”
“Have you considered the idea maybe it’s Artemis you shouldn’t trust?” I returned, angry for the first time with her. “What right does she have to tell you something like this?”
“She thinks of nothing but helping Phoibe. She meant to warn me.”
What bothered me the most wasn’t the idea of betraying people, but that I had long ago fully accepted the idea I would probably hurt people I didn’t want to on my journey to exact Titan revenge and earn the respect of my father. But I didn’t want Phoibe to be one of those people. Until now, our paths weren’t likely to cross. I was never supposed to see her again, never supposed to be involved in her life except to supply advice on occasion to her caretaker.
As big as this compound was, I had the sudden sense this new world was too small for me to avoid her completely forever.
“I can’t see the future. To the best of my knowledge about deities, neither can Artemis,” I replied pointedly. “If I’m meant to betray you, it won’t be anytime soon. I, too, am concerned about Phoibe. I can’t possibly ever see myself betraying her, even if, by some far stretch of the imagination, I manage to betray you.”
“I don’t care what you do to me. She’s my Phoibe. If you betray her, you will answer to me. I will unleash whatever in Hades Thanatos did to me,” Theodocia said firmly.
“I understand. I have no intention of betraying anyone, no matter what Artemis thinks. You know I would never do anything to hurt Phoibe. When I found out she was in danger, I left as fast as I could.”
Theodocia’s features softened. “I want to believe you,” she said. “How did you know about her danger anyway?”
“We’ll discuss it. I have to go talk to someone first, though,” I said. “I give you my word I’ll find you when it’s over and fulfill my end of our deal.”
Theodocia studied me briefly. “I can find your friend,” she said reluctantly.
“I’d appreciate it.” I forced a smile, unable to dismiss her claim as I wanted to. “Want to meet me back here in two hours?”
She nodded.
With confidence I didn’t exactly have at the moment, I smiled and turned away, heading off in a random direction. Only when I was far enough away for Theodocia not to hear me did I whisper to the Oracle.
“Are you there?”
“I am,” she replied. Her voice was stronger his time, as if our proximity made it easier for her to talk to me.
“I’m on the compound. Where am I going?”
She gave me instructions to an underground chamber that left me scratching my head. But I followed them and approached what appeared to be a small, heavily guarded shed complete with its own security system and steel doors. At that point, I had to use my power, which flowed more easily, as if the Oracle had freed more of it. I hid in the shade of a nearby tree and visually scouted my path to the building. In order not to be seen, I had to travel from shadow to shadow and stay in an unbroken line of darkness.
Once ready, I melted into the shade of the tree. Seconds later, I stood in the corner of the guardroom in the interior. I slid past the metal detector and full body scanner, clinging to the edges of the room and their shadows, before reaching the elevator. The interior was dim enough for me to remain a shadow. Red orbs in the ceilings left me thinking the lights were body heat sensors rather than true lights, another odd precaution I wasn’t certain why it existed.
When the doors opened, I stepped into a room that felt like a sauna. I materialized, according to the Oracle’s instructions. Sweat popped onto my forehead and the back of my neck. It smelled odd, of overpowering incense and sulfur. Most of the area was shrouded in darkness. At one with the shadows, I was able to see through the darkness and determine the size of the basement. There were three rooms in total, this main chamber and two smaller ones. No furniture existed here, no piping or air ducts leading to the outside world. It was completely i
solated, a mini-dungeon.
“Why would you want to meet in such a place?” I asked.
“Because this is where I am.”
I turned towards the voice and went to the far end of the room, searching the darkness with my eyes. I saw no one and paused a few feet from railing lining a wall brightened by blue-white light.
“Is this some kind of trick?” I asked, puzzled.
“Look up.”
I did so, and my whole world seemed to stop. My heart felt as if it tumbled to my feet, and my skin crawled with what was before me. Unable to look away, neither was I able to register what exactly my eyes were seeing. It … she … wasn’t human. At least, not anymore.
“I need to tell you something no one else, save for the Oracles preceding me, has ever known,” the Oracle of Delphi said. “And then, I need to tell you something even my predecessors did not know.”
“You have my attention,” I whispered in a combination of awe and horror.
“The prophecy of the double omega isn’t the tale of the end of days. It’s a person, an Oracle. The last Oracle, whose power will be far greater than that of the first Oracle, who opened the bridge between worlds that left us vulnerable to the gods,” she began. “A door that can be opened can also be closed, cutting off those visitors to our world from their source of power and rendering the being who can open and close the door the most powerful person in our world. This source of power is where your magic comes from as well.”
“You closed the door,” I guessed.
“Temporarily. I can’t hold it closed for long, and I can’t hold it closed completely. But I can determine where the power slipping through goes. I was able to channel part of yours back to you.”
“For what purpose is it closed at all?” I asked. “If you say vengeance, I will fully support you. This,” I motioned to her dismembered body, “isn’t my idea of an ideal job.”
“You were not brought here to know this.”
“Then tell me why I’m here.”
“In every scenario and every variation of the future I have tested, the survival of our world comes down to the sacrifice of one life. My predecessors believed the destruction of Earth to be a foregone conclusion, once the double omega was born. I have had two decades to decipher the prophetic end of days, and I posit that it’s not just the double omega who will determine the ultimate fate of Earth, but the life of another as well. The double omega will become corrupted, will turn on her own kind. It will take a second person to right her course.”