Forge of the Gods 2

by Simon Archer

  Daniella and Jade took a seat, but I was too irritated to follow their lead. Makayla crossed her arms and stood at the corner of the bench, eyeing me as I paced.

  “What are you thinking, Cameron?” she prompted, her voice kinder, as though she actually wanted to hear my thoughts.

  “If I actually told you what I was thinking, I think I would get expelled,” I grumbled, letting a bit of frustration bleed through in my voice.

  Makayla’s eyebrows raised, and she frowned slightly. “Fair enough. What are your thoughts on this new bout of Tainted Love?”

  I spun on my heel and stared at the Elemental Official incredulously. “Why do you want to know? Aren’t I your prime suspect? Even if I did share it with you, it isn’t like you would believe me.”

  “Unlike some of my colleagues, I am not so quick to judge,” the daughter of Hermes said as she shifted her weight to center herself, a more open and stronger stance. “You are still the only one who has never been infected by Tainted Love on campus.”

  While she told me that before, her words took on a new meaning. I cocked my head at her as a thought occurred to me. “The Stratego was affected, wasn’t he?”

  “I can’t tell you that,” Makayla answered blandly.

  “That means yes,” I concluded. I resumed my pacing with my hands on my hips. “I would have paid good money to see him infatuated with someone.”

  “Cameron,” Makayla said sharply. “Focus, please. What do you think?”

  “Right, right,” I said as I cleared my head of thoughts of the Stratego, making goo-goo eyes at one of the other teachers. I turned to my friends and gripped the armrest of the bench. “What’s different about this time?”

  Daniella scooted to the edge of the bench, eager to have this conversation. “The first strain put people into pairs. There was obsession and connection at the center of it. But this time, it was more random and incited jealousy.”

  “Also, Tainted Love spread throughout campus, whereas this seemed localized to the cafeteria,” Jade added, ready to help.

  “And the dance was a one-time thing too,” I said, the gears in my mind whirring with possibilities.

  “With you at the center of it,” Jade pointed out.

  “Yeah, don’t remind me,” I groaned as I put a hand to my forehead.

  “Or me,” Daniella agreed, equalized traumatized by the incident at the dance.

  “You said they were saying different things this time,” Makayla stepped in, literally taking a step forward. “What was it again?”

  “The first time it was like ‘We have this connection’ whereas this time it was all about ‘most fair and most beautiful,’” I quoted. “Then at the dance, they called me ‘ravishing.’” A chill went down my spine at the memory of all those voices shouting that word at me, thinking it was a compliment when it was really an off-putting comment.

  “Do those words mean anything to you?” Makayla asked. “Any of you?”

  We paused and let the wind whip around us as we thought about the repeated phrases by those who were infected with Tainted Love. My mind cycled through the words: connection, ravishing, fair, beautiful. Something about them was familiar, and it pricked at the base of my skull.

  “Is it…” I started, my voice not quite caught up to my thoughts. “From a myth?”

  “You would be the one to know,” Jade said with a scoff.

  Even though I sensed the jealousy in her voice, she was right. Especially given what Aphrodite had told me about how I used the Sight. I flipped through the stories in my mind, searching for those keywords and how they might have been used. Originally, I added love and lust and even Aphrodite to my initial search, but that didn’t feel right. It wasn’t love, so much as it was manipulation, because that was the real antagonist here.

  There were so many stories of manipulation in Greek mythology, but there was only one that used those four words.

  “The apple orchard,” I whispered.

  Makayla stuck her neck out at me and leaned her head towards me, unsure if she’d heard me. “I’m sorry. Apples?”

  “Yeah,” I said with a slow nod. “I think apples are the source.”

  “Cameron,” Daniella prompted gently, “want to tell the group how you got there?”

  “Sorry,” I stuttered. I held out my hands, as though I could see the story in front of me. “It’s the wedding of Peleus and Thetis when Eris threw in the Apple of Discord because she was pissed that she wasn’t invited to the wedding. The apple was inscribed with a phrase, but they disagree on the exacting wording because of translations. But the four words, connection, ravishing, fair, and beautiful, are among the disputed words.”

  The words tumbled out of my mouth as the ideas and connections fired in my head at an alarming rate. I tried to slow down, but my voice only seemed to speed up as I continued. “Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all claimed the apple and were manipulated by it. The Judgement of Paris happened, which led to the most infamous war in Grecian history! The Trojan War!”

  I had both my arms in the air like a ref at a football game, overjoyed by my discovery. “So, I think it’s in the apples that are in the orchard that we worked on during Agriculture.”

  Jade’s mouth opened and closed, her eyes wide with shock. Before she could answer me, another thought struck, and I jumped up and down in light of my epiphany.

  “Which means I’m not immune,” I said. “I haven’t been affected because I haven’t had any apples because I’m allergic. And Jade just made those tarts, the apple ones, just now, that’s why they all freaked out in only the cafeteria. It’s been in our food. That’s got to be it!”

  I waited for the other three to share in my excitement, but there was something stale in the air. Their bodies were stiff and tense with something that I didn’t understand. Everything made sense. My theory was solid. All we had to do was test the apples in the med bay and see if I was right. However, it was clear from the faces of my friends and the Elemental Official that I was missing something rather crucial.

  “Well, I thought it was a good idea,” I said as I lowered my arms in defeat.

  “Unfortunately, Cameron, I think it is too,” Makayla said with a low and measured tone.

  “Why unfortunately?” I asked, picking up on her strange word usage.

  “Because if you’re right, then that means we know who is responsible for spreading Tainted Love around campus,” Makayla concluded.

  “Yeah, whoever planted the apple orchard,” I agreed with a shrug. “That makes sense.”

  All of a sudden, my lover burst into tears. She put a hand to her mouth and trembled.

  “I didn’t do this!” Jade cried. “I had no idea, I swear!”

  Horror slapped me across the face as I realized what had actually just happened. While I figured out the potential source of Tainted Love, I had also just inadvertently incriminated my lover.

  32

  They arrested Jade that very day.

  Unfortunately, Makayla reported my theory to the rest of the Elemental Officials. Daniella helped conduct the tests on the apples at the med bay alongside Aphrodite. Both of them were able to determine that yes, they were infected with the same magic as her girdle, like the Apple of Discord.

  The Stratego had no sympathy for her either. No matter how many times Jade insisted she knew nothing, that she had bought the apple seeds from the farmer’s market in the mortal world, that she was innocent, he wouldn’t hear it.

  “Save it for the trial,” he told her as they dragged her from the kitchens, where she had been working on dinner for that evening.

  It was a terrible spectacle as every student in the quickly cleaned and repaired cafeteria watched. The Elemental Officials paraded her to the jail like a criminal, and the whole ordeal was wholly unnecessary. The only reason for it was so that the Stratego could tell the campus that had found their culprit. In my eyes, that very choice to humiliate her publicly condemned her already.

  Even if by some
miraculous reason that Jade was found not guilty at her trial, everyone would remember and know her name. They would remember the moment when the Officials strapped her hands behind her back and marched her in front of everyone with no shame or thought of the consequences.

  I tried to see her the minute that I heard she was kept in the same cells that I was last year. Even Daniella tried to use the same medical excuse as he had done with me, but the Officials were having none of it. Security at the jail on campus had significantly increased as a result of our escape.

  There was no way I could comfort my friend. I couldn’t apologize for unknowingly putting her in the line of fire. My thoughts had gotten away from me, so excited to have an answer and source for Tainted Love, that I didn’t actually think about what I was saying. If I had known it led back to Jade, I would have done something, anything, to prevent this poor treatment of her. I would have figured out a way to point the finger somewhere else because no matter what the evidence said, there was no way that Jade could have done this.

  However, only Daniella, Beth, and I seemed convinced of that fact. Beth, like all the other infected students, was quickly healed by Aphrodite and became her own quirky self. Daniella and I explained the whole situation to her one night in Daniella’s dorm room.

  “It’s not her,” Beth quickly concluded, not missing a beat. “She couldn’t have done this.”

  “We know,” Daniella and I chided together.

  “I mean, what’s her motivation?” Beth continued, not really listening to us, caught up in her own emotions. “That’s what all the crime shows and detectives talk about. Motive. What’s her motive?”

  “There is no motive, but that doesn’t matter,” Daniella said, her voice hoarse as though she’d spent the night shouting at a rock concert. I knew it was from crying at Jade’s fate. Being the realist among us, Daniella saw the whole situation as a lot more dire and hopeless than Beth and I did.

  “Of course, it matters!” Beth protested.

  “Daniella’s right,” I added. “You don’t need a motive to convict someone of a crime. It helps the jury understand the crime better, but it’s not a requirement.”

  Beth’s mouth flopped open, as though we’d just set off a stick of dynamite in her head. She had her hands on her hips and stared at us incredulously. Our friend closed her mouth and shook her head with a disappointed expression.

  “All those episodes of CSI wasted,” she grumbled. Beth cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Well, at least she gets a trial. That means she has a chance.”

  “Not when it’s a closed trial, run by the Elemental Officials,” Daniella said solemnly. “They are her judge and jury. While there are some influences from the American justice system, the whole ordeal is rather archaic.”

  “Could you at least try to stay positive?” I pleaded with my friend. “Because we have to be hopeful that they see that she didn’t and couldn’t have possibly done this.”

  “That’s the problem, Cameron,” Daniella said as she hopped off her own bed so she could stare at me directly. “I think she did do it.”

  Beth and I gasped. “Daniella!” Beth exclaimed.

  “What the hell?” I snapped, anger firing up in my stomach.

  “I think she did it,” Daniella repeated, unashamed of her answer. “I don’t think she intended to. I don’t think she injected the seeds with Aphrodite’s magic, but I do think she brought them to campus and planted them and fed the apples to campus.”

  “So what if she did that?” I asked, the sharpness never leaving my voice. “She didn’t know that the apples would make anyone become infected with Tainted Love.”

  “That doesn’t matter,” Daniella said. She held out her hands as if weighing the options. “Say you hit someone with your car. You didn’t mean to do it. Maybe it was dark, or they were crossing the street at the wrong, but you still hit them. It might not be murder, but you still get charged with manslaughter.”

  “So that’s why you're so…” Beth waved his hand around Daniella’s whole body as if she were indicating the healer’s aura or something. “Pessimistic. You think it doesn’t matter if she intended to or not.”

  “It won’t,” Daniella said as she shook her head, like a doctor calling time of death.

  “So what?” Beth prompted with a shrug. “You think they’ll still wipe her memory and kick her out of here.”

  “I do,” Daniella nodded. “They want to make an example of her, show that no one can mess with the Academy like this. Especially not after the embarrassment of letting Kari get away.”

  Waves of emotions crashed inside of me. On the one hand, Daniella’s logic made sense as much as I didn’t want it to. Everyone already knew that Jade planted the apple orchard this year. It was her pride and joy, which she personally cared for, a project she hoped would launch her into being drafted early because she used her powers with food to enhance their growth rate and the size of the apples. I was even there when she bought the seeds. Or at least, she had shown them to me at the farmer’s market.

  On the other hand, I couldn’t stand the idea that our lover might be gone. That they would be cruel enough to wipe her memories of Greek gods being real, of her powers, and of the Academy. She wouldn’t remember any of this, any of us. All because she was an unknowing pawn in someone else’s game.

  “Have we thought about who could have infected the seeds?” Beth said, clearly grasping at straws.

  “Jade said she didn’t buy them from Kari, if that’s what you’re asking,” I said with a sigh. “We know it was Kari who stole the girdle, so it makes sense that she would infect the seeds.”

  “But how did the magic get from the girdle to the seeds, then?” Beth asked.

  I shrugged. “That’s the key, isn’t it? If we could prove who infected them, then maybe we could get Jade off the hook. Everyone will want to blame that person.”

  “That might be true,” Daniella started as she leaned against her footboard, arms across her chest. “But I don’t think there’s any way of figuring it out. And plus, I don’t think they will care. They have their culprit. Once they punish her, they’ll just want to move on.”

  “I can’t do this anymore,” I said as I threw my arms up in the air. I crossed to the door and put my hand on the knob.

  “I’m sorry, Cameron,” Daniella said. “I don’t mean to upset you. I’m just trying to prepare you.”

  I looked over my shoulder and could see the sadness in her eyes. All of this pained her as much as me, a pain worse than what Beth was feeling because Daniella was in a solid relationship with Jade. But neither of them were saddled with the guilt that they were the one who had incriminated his lover. That was all on me.

  “And I appreciate that about you, Daniella, but right now,” I released a heavy sigh, “I just can’t.”

  Without another word, my friends let me leave the room. I could hear their muffled voices on the other side of the door, but I walked away before I could distinguish any words. I didn’t want to hear what they were saying about Jade or me or this entire messed up situation.

  I exited the dorm building, intent on heading to the forge. It was the only place I could think of to distract myself enough from the heaviness in my stomach and the tightness in my chest.

  All I wanted to do was talk to Jade and tell her I was sorry. I knew it wouldn’t erase this whole situation, but I couldn’t help but think that if I hadn’t opened my mouth, if I hadn’t pieced together the whole apple theory in the first piece, that she wouldn’t be on the verge of expulsion right now. Sure, we would have reached the same conclusion eventually, but we could have quietly gotten rid of the apples. Or we could have had enough time to figure out who infected the seeds in the first place, so we could convict them instead of Jade.

  Right now, though, I felt utterly helpless. It was my least favorite feeling in the world. So I made my way to the forge, hoping to quell some of that helplessness. If I made something, if I could bang away my feeli
ngs, then maybe I would feel better about this whole situation.

  Mainly, more than anything, I just wanted to remind my lover that I was there for her. Even if I couldn’t give her a hug or a kiss her worries away, I needed her to know that I loved her and believed in her. With the jail security the way it was, there was simply no way I was getting in to tell her any of those things.

  But maybe I didn’t have to get it.

  I stopped in my tracks as the thought occurred to me. It seemed so obvious. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. Without another moment to lose, I put my fingers to my lips and whistled long and low.

  Khryseos and Argyreos appeared dutifully at my side. They materialized in midair with goofy grins on their faces, huffing and puffing as though they had just run a marathon. They leaned up against me enthusiastically, and I bent down to greet them accordingly.

  “Hello boys,” I chided, smiling instantly at the sight of them. I ran my fingers through their short black hair, and Argyreos barked in delight.

  I chuckled at the pair, but then my face grew serious as I looked between the pair of them. “I need you two to do something really important for me.”

  Khryseos and Argyreos put their tongues back in their mouths and sat up straighter, listening keenly. I smirked at their prompt responses.

  “You remember our friend, Jade?” I asked. I paused for a moment as if waiting for a response, but then remembering that they couldn’t actually speak to me, I continued. “Well, I need you to find her in the jail cells on campus. She’s really alone right now and going through a lot. I don’t want her to be alone, okay? I need you boys to stay with her as long as you can. Don’t let anyone else see, so you don’t get kicked out, but let her know you’re there for her, alright?”

  Khryseos pushed my hand with his nose in agreement. Argyreos’s ears perked up, straight as an arrow, attentive. Then he licked the side of my face, in case I hadn’t gotten the message.

  “Thank you both,” I said with a kiss on each of their heads.

  Then they disappeared from beneath my hands. I let my arms fall to my side with a sigh. I missed the heat and the weight of the dogs already, but I knew that they would comfort Jade accordingly. They loved her almost as much as they loved me, and they definitely enjoyed her presence. I knew this because when I lived in the general dorms with Jade last year, I would often find them on her bed while she studied when I would come back from a long training session with Hailey.