Shadow Titan

by Lizzy Ford

  I shifted my weight between my feet, not liking where this conversation was going. “Has the double omega been born?”

  “She has.”

  “Why not stop this corruption before it happens?”

  “In every scenario where I’ve tested this possibility, I’ve failed to stop the end of days.”

  “What do you mean by test?” I asked, frowning. “Have you gone forward and backward in time?”

  “I am a human with a computer mind that knows no restrictions, the only quantum computer in the universe. Unlike my predecessors, I have the capability to run thousands of possibilities and probabilities in the time it takes you to blink,” she replied. “I’ve been testing possibilities for twenty years in an effort to identify what my predecessors could not. In every scenario, in every probability, I fail to find a solution, except for one scenario. There’s only one way for the end of days not to happen as prophesized by the first Oracle.”

  “I’m all ears,” I said, on edge.

  “Sit down. We’ll talk.”

  My Titan energy was humming and my pulse racing. I did as she said and knelt on the cement floor, apprehensive about what she was about to reveal.

  “It starts with the double omega, the last Oracle in a long line of Earth-bound goddesses whose powers far exceed those of the gods and goddesses, if the game of powers were played fairly.”

  “Hate the players, not the game,” I joked weakly.

  “The players perpetuate the game!” she snapped.

  I rolled my eyes.

  As she began speaking again, the rest of the world, along with everything I’d ever believed to be true about chance, life and power, began to fall away. I listened in stunned silence as she imparted knowledge to me the likes of which I didn’t think was possible for any one person to know.

  The longer I sat, the heavier the sense of doom at my core became. I listened. I learned. I broke down and cried at one point. But I didn’t leave – not when the Oracle was giving me the keys to power and prophecy. I had always wanted to matter in my father’s eyes. Finally, I had a way to do so. At least, I thought so, until she revealed the price of success, the one-way trip down a path I’d never choose for myself.

  Hours later, when I left the Oracle’s chamber and stood in the middle of the mall at the center of the compound, I tilted my head back to gaze at the stars. Stuck in my thoughts, uncertain what my next step should be, I didn’t register the circling creature overhead until it began to descend and filled my line of sight. Blinking out of the stupor I entered since shortly after the Oracle began speaking, I forced a smile at Adonis as the ugly, flying grotesque drew closer to the ground. I’d missed my meeting with Theodocia; after talking to Adonis, I’d have to find her and hope she wasn’t angry enough to try to murder me again.

  At this point, I might welcome death, I thought bitterly, unable to fully grasp all I’d learned from the Oracle.

  Adonis landed a few feet from me and tilted his head. Over six feet tall, with a panther’s lean body, a knobby bald head, fangs and lopsided features, he was terrifying to behold, except to me. To me, his frightening features were always welcome, especially now.

  What is it? He asked, communicating telepathically as we did at night, when he was in his beast form. As always, he was sensitive to my mood, my energy, my expression.

  “Imagine learning the world is going to end. Now imagine you can stop it but you’re forbidden from telling anyone,” I quipped.

  Adonis folded his wings behind him. Their tips trailed on the ground behind him, and his tail snaked from side to side as he approached.

  Can you tell a monster? He asked.

  I laughed, always appreciative of the man-beast whose mind was quicker than lightning. “Alas, I cannot.”

  Does this have to do with the voice that sent me to find you?

  “It does. Please don’t ask me more. You know I hate to keep secrets from you.” Aside from the necessary ones, I added silently. Adonis would never know the secrets I stole from his mind or the parts of him I sealed off from the rest of him. If he did, he would never be my friend, let alone help me pursue my goals in life.

  I respect your boundaries, as always.

  “Mrs. Nettles isn’t with you. Did you find a place for her?”

  We were all provided rooms in the palace. I dare not show you in this form, but it is there. He pointed to some area behind me.

  I didn’t look. After all I’d heard, sleeping and dealing with people were off my to-do list for the immediate future.

  Are you well? Adonis asked when I lapsed into stillness and silence again.

  I shook my head in an attempt to jar loose the images stuck in my mind after the talk with the Oracle. “Physically, yes. Mentally, not really.”

  The gardens are beautiful. They may bring you peace.

  I started to respond and then stopped, gazing at the creature whose mind I had erased in order to keep him with me. Should I have felt this pang of regret? I never regretted my actions with regards to Adonis before. But the world was different now than it had been this morning. I had learned more than I ever wanted to know, not only about what was to come, but about the fates and minds of those around me.

  Including him.

  “Walk with me,” I said. “I could use the company of a friend tonight.”

  Adonis complied and fell into step beside me. We ambled towards the gardens. The scent of night blooming jasmine and roses reached us long before we made it to the stone pathway winding through the gardens. The laughter of fountains was soothing, as was the presence of the monster beside me.

  Is there anything I can do to help? Adonis asked.

  “No,” I replied. “I’ve been thinking about something someone told me earlier today, that it’s often better not to know some things.”

  You are fortunate to know too much. I have forgotten everything about myself, my life, my past.

  “I have a feeling you’ll remember one day,” I said softly. For my sake, I hoped the inevitable day was far, far off.

  We entered the gardens.

  “I think we have an opportunity here,” I said, running my fingertips over the tops of a bush. “A good one. It might require some deception over the short term. I’ve got to convince a lot of people I’m not who or what they think I am.”

  You excel at shadows and deception, Adonis observed.

  One of the statues at the center of a fountain we were nearing caught my attention, and I stopped to gaze up at it. A young man in a loincloth carried a jar over his shoulder. The opening of the jar poured water into the warmly lit basin below. It wasn’t his chiseled features that caught my attention, but the mask he wore over his eyes. Was I prepared to wear a mask? I had kept the secret of my Titan birth father my entire life, but the level of misdirection I’d need to harness over the next few years made hiding my taboo lineage appear to be the easiest thing I had ever done in my life.

  I think everyone is too concerned about what they’re calling the Holy Wars for them to pay attention to one man, Adonis added.

  “Let’s hope so. I need to move us into pretty prominent positions as discreetly as possible,” I said. What my friend didn’t realize was that I’d have to master deceiving him, too.

  Wars make for excellent distractions.

  “True. It might be possible to fuel the fire as well. Keep my opponents divided. I can’t reveal everything, but I can tell you that the gods and goddesses are trapped on Earth for now, cut off from their sources of power. They’re vulnerable in one way but still powerful in a different way.”

  If this is true, they will turn on each other easily. If you mean to distract them while you move into position where your Titan heritage may be suspect, it will require little effort on your part. Play off their fears and egos. If you mean to distract the humans, they, too, are already at each other’s throats. Offer them a solution to their current woes. The world will fall at your feet.

  I glanced at Adonis. I shouldn’
t have been surprised by his mind, but I was. Whenever I began to feel overwhelmed or discouraged, he knew exactly what to say to reinvigorate me. In his distant past, he had been a Greek prince and successful war commander at the head of vast armies. He knew a thing or two about waging war. It was me who hadn’t really thought about our situation in this light. But he was right. We … I … was waging my own war, and the Oracle had just given me a powerful weapon with which I could accelerate my status significantly.

  That is, if I were willing to do as she foresaw. At the moment, I was torn between serving my own interests and expanding my narrow view to include the fate of the entirety of humanity. It was a huge leap for me, one I didn’t look forward to making.

  Why me? Of all the questions remaining, this was the one that baffled me the most. I was selfish and the last person to be trusted by anyone, and the Oracle had not only revealed great secrets to me but had given me the most selfless act of all.

  “You’re a good friend, Adonis. I don’t know if I thank you enough for being my friend,” I murmured.

  It’s an honor, Lantos.

  It wasn’t, but he had no way of knowing that after what I had done to his mind. “Have you hunted yet?”

  No. I waited for you.

  “I’ll be fine. Go hunt. I need to fulfill a promise to the High Priestess you met earlier. Her mind is hurting her. I can silence it.”

  As you do mine when it becomes agitated with strange memories?

  I glanced at him. The brilliant, loyal, ruthless monster who was my friend had no idea what I really did to him when errant memories emerged from the depths of the mind I kept purposely darkened. “Yes, the same,” I lied. “I’m going to help her.”

  I will not be gone long. Adonis stepped away from me and unfurled his wings. Mrs. Nettles is waiting for you.

  I smiled. “I’ll give her a huge hug when I find my way to her. Hunt well, Adonis.”

  Do not weigh yourself down with such heavy thoughts, Lantos. You will never have to face what comes alone. I will always help you.

  “I know. Thank you.”

  He leapt deftly into the air with physical strength that always left me envious. Adonis soared straight up towards the night sky, his wide wings beating steadily and powerfully as he ascended.

  I did not doubt him. Ever. But I also knew that the future the Oracle revealed would one day deprive me of my only friend.

  “Not tonight,” I told myself. I’d worry about the future of my friendship another night.

  Tonight, I had to decide between my destiny and the fate of the world. It was a much harder decision than it probably should have been, because I didn’t particularly care about the rest of the world. Given the choice between what I needed to do to win over my Titan father and protecting my only friend, I was stuck.

  In the end, I had a feeling I already knew what choice would win out. Perhaps this was the real reason I experienced regret looking at Adonis. Wiping his mind was merciful compared to what I was faced with doing down the road. Even if my future actions were for the greater good, even if they would end up serving my personal interests, I couldn’t decide with ease to lose the faith and friendship of Adonis.

  “I hope you’ll understand one day,” I whispered to the night sky. “If there were any other choice, I’d make it.”

  I sat on a bench in the gardens and closed my eyes, soothed by the fountains, singing crickets and rustling of leaves in the soft breeze while my mind fought to justify a decision I never dreamt I’d have to make.

  Theta Beginnings Miniseries

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