Created by Chaos

by Melody Rose

  “Okay, okay,” I said just to stall as I thought about what our next moves were.

  “Can I ask?” Temperance said tentatively. “Ansel told me that you were trying to find Hephaestus so he could work with you on the Ultimate Weapon. Is that why you were on Calypso’s island? Did you find Hephaestus?”

  “Yeah, we found him all right,” I said with a grimace, not bothering to hide my dislike of the god anymore. “But he’s not going to help us.”

  “Then…” Temperance’s words trailed off, and her face went white. She didn’t even need to ask the question. I could see it all over her face.

  “I don’t know what we’re going to do,” I said, answering the question she didn’t outright ask. “The first thing is I have to wake up and tell Violet to stop the Argo because she set a course back to campus, and I don’t think going back there is going to be the best option. At least not until we know what we are doing.”

  “If the Fates are right, then you better figure it out soon because we don’t have much time,” Temperance added. “Graduation planned for dawn.”

  “Dawn?” I gasped. “I thought it was a whole day thing?”

  “It is,” Temperance said with a nod. “That’s why it starts at dawn.”

  “Fuck,” I grumbled. “I have to get out of here and warn the others. We have to come up with something.”

  “I’ll be here as long as I can,” Temperance told me with a stern look in her eye, letting me know that she meant it. “Let me know what I can do.”

  “I will,” I said, though I didn’t add the part I was really thinking, which was, I don’t even know what I’m going to do.

  “Okay, I’m going to push you off the mountain now,” Temperance warned me.

  “What? Why?” I asked, suddenly panicked.

  “To wake you up sooner,” Temperance said. Before I had a chance to argue, she shoved me hard in the chest, and I flew backward. There were a few moments where I plummeted through the air before my back collided with something hard.

  My eyes popped open like broken blinds, and I sat up abruptly, immediately banging my head on the bunk above mine. I rubbed the wound as I stumbled out of bed and ran. Because I had been asleep for the whole journey, I didn’t have my sea legs yet, so I banged into the walls of the hallway like a drunk.

  “Stop the boat!” I shouted, not sure if they could hear me from several levels below deck. Still, I hollered all the way up the stairs until my voice was sore. When I reached the deck, Violet was at her position by the steering wheel, while Darren and Benji sorted through our supplies on the floor.

  I tried not to be off-put but our surroundings. We were in a bubble of air, floating down at the bottom of the ocean. There was nothing but a dark blue all around us and some brave fish that swam past the strange ship invading their space. I had to pause at the top of the stairs in order to orient myself and not lose my footing again.

  “Stop the boat!” I screamed a final time as I burst through the galley door.

  “I heard you the first time,” Violet protested as she dramatically stuck a finger in her ear as if I’d injured her eardrum with all my shouting. “I stopped the boat. Now, where’s the fire?” She chuckled at her own joke, but I didn’t laugh along with her.

  I proceeded to relay everything Temperance had told me from the weeks we’d missed, from being on the island to the secret identities of the branch leaders. When I got to the part about the fact that graduation was the next morning, Violet gasped appropriately.

  “What are we going to do?” she said through her hand over her mouth.

  “That’s what I was coming to ask you all,” I said, a little breathless from all of the talking. “I don’t know.”

  “Okay,” Darren said, getting to his feet. He put his hands on his hips. “What are our options?”

  “Attack?” Benji suggested, throwing his idea into the ring.

  “Without the Ultimate Weapon, I don’t think we’re going to get very far. We barely made it out safely the first time we fought the daemon spirits,” I pointed out.

  “Then how do we make the Ultimate Weapon, and fast?” Violet said as she left her post and joined us down on the main deck.

  “What does the prophecy say exactly, Shy?” Darren wondered. “Do you remember it?”

  “I have it written down in my pack,” I said, pointing to the pile of supplies at his feet.

  Benji promptly dug out my bag and riffled through until he found my sketchbook, where I doodled random designs for weapons when class bored me. He flipped through it until he found the paper that was different from all the others, the one I stuck in there haphazardly after the Olympic Officials first relayed the prophecy to me.

  The son of Demeter cleared his throat and recited the prophecy as though he were on stage, in one of Oliver’s classes.

  Thousands of years the War has waged

  “Between man, beasts, and gods enraged

  Fights never-ending and nearly staged

  By those who are forgotten and aged

  The Ultimate Weapon will be made

  For any side to win the crusade

  A life-controlling elemental blade

  To be weld by the child of the betrayed

  The children will persist and learn

  That what they need is to burn

  With Eternal Flame to return

  In order for trust they earn

  The end is near when the fire is gone

  A call is needed, not a yawn

  Until chaos is quelled and light drawn

  By the bringing of a new era, a new dawn.”

  When Benji finished, the four of us waited in silence, hoping that one of the others had the solution. I licked my lips and thought through the words.

  “Okay, here’s what we know,” I started from the top. “The blade is a scythe. It’s a life-controlling blade that Kronos, the father of the gods, originally wielded.”

  “It also has elemental properties,” Darren added. “Normally, that would mean that it needs to be touched by the gods.”

  “Which also makes sense because the gods are the only beings who have enough power to affect one another,” Benji continued the discussion.

  “And that one needs the Eternal Flame to make the blade,” I concluded, adding that crucial fact that I learned last year.

  “Cheyenne,” Violet said sternly, getting down to the point. “Can you make the scythe?”

  “If I can get to the forge, absolutely,” I said with confidence. “I think we will need to sneak on campus somehow and get to the main forge. As much as I would like to use my private one at my house, I think it’s too dangerous. With people on campus not knowing who we are anymore, they will think we’re intruders, and we have to be careful where we go and what we do.”

  “Will the main forge have everything you need, though?” Darren double-checked, making me run through the list of everything required for me to make the Ultimate Weapon.

  When I thought about what was in the Academy’s main forge, my mind ticked off all of the tools and the materials. I visually pictured the room, thinking through all of the steps. As I took my mental tour, something caught my eye. I remembered that Ruby’s old safe was underneath the workbench. I thought about what was in that safe and gasped as inspiration struck.

  “That’s it,” I whispered. Then I raised my voice, full of confidence. “I have the remnants of Harmonia’s necklace.”

  “The cursed one?” Benji asked as if he needed to clarify. We all knew the effects of Harmonia’s dangerous necklace.

  “Yes,” I said, my voice rising in pitch at my excitement. “The goddess blessed it. I can melt it down and reforge it as a part of the Ultimate Weapon. Because the metal was already used by a god--”

  “Then you don’t have to have it blessed twice,” Darren deciphered.

  I pointed a finger directly at him as though he were a game show winner. “Exactly.”

  “Is that going to be enough metal, though?”
Violet stepped in, biting on her thumbnail. “What was left of the necklace was rather small.”

  “No, but I won’t use just that,” I said, my thoughts getting ahead of myself. “I’ll use the helm I made for Hades, the bow and arrow from Eros, and Atropos’s scissors.”

  “That’s great and all but one problem,” Benji said as he held up a single finger. “How are you going to get these items back from the gods you gave them to?”

  “I’m going to take a page out of Calypso’s book,” I said with a shrug. “I’m going to ask.”

  31

  “Sounds good,” Benji said with a shrug. “Great plan. Just one question, though. How are you going to get to the Underworld? Because last time you went down there, we had to kill you, and I’m not really up for doing that again.”

  I swallowed audibly and bit my tongue. I wasn’t quite sure on that part yet, but Benji had a point. I didn’t think that dying again was in my best interest.

  “There’s water down in the Underworld, right?” Violet checked. She tapped her chin with her pointer finger.

  “Yeah,” I said, slightly confused by her question. “It’s black, inky water, but it’s water.”

  “Then I can get us there,” Violet said quickly as she ran back to the upper deck, taking the stairs two at a time.

  “Care to explain?” I prompted, looking up at my friends with my hands splayed wide.

  “The Argo can travel to any place with a body of water,” Violet replied, calling over the top of the steering wheel. “The Underworld has rivers, from what I remember from class and what you’ve told me.”

  “Seven rivers, to be exact,” I added.

  “No one asked you to be exact, Shy,” Benji said with a sympathetic pat on my shoulder.

  “Either way,” Violet said, her voice cutting through our conversation like a knife. “I can get us there. You’re sure this will work, Cheyenne?”

  “Nope,” I answered honestly. “But it’s the best plan I’ve got right now, so unless anyone else has a better one, that’s what we’re going with.”

  The boys looked to one another and shrugged simultaneously, giving their consent to move ahead with the current plan. Violet nodded her confirmation and stared out beyond the edge of the boat as if she could see the path in her mind’s eye.

  I quickly dipped below deck again. I didn’t need to get seasick all over the deck before I had to go and negotiate with the God of the Dead. I wanted to be at my best for a conversation that I still wasn’t sure was going to amount to anything. Darren followed behind me to give me some Lotus potion so I could sleep as we ventured to the Underworld. He knew the pain my stomach would have had to endure if I was forced to stay awake the entire trip.

  However, it felt like seconds between the time I closed my eyes and the time that I opened them again. When I ventured back above deck, it wasn’t the same underwater ocean view that it was before. This time, a sea of black surrounded us. It shimmered like black sequins, and while there was a certain level of beauty to it, the lack of light intimidated me.

  We wafted upward to the surface of the river until we approached the Underworld. Darren, Violet, and Benji all gasped at the sight before them. We entered right in front of Hades’s door. Different pillars flanked the opening to his lair with bowls of fire on them. Some bowls of orange flame floated in the black river, lining our path.

  I felt that familiar warmth from the fire and relished in the comfort of it. It was also nice to go somewhere I had already been to before, and I recognized it enough to feel comfortable.

  “This is…” Violet started, but she couldn’t seem to find the right words.

  “Intimidating as hell,” Benji filled in the blanks for her. “I get the feeling that Hades isn’t a fan of unexpected visitors. Are you sure about this, Shy?”

  “We’re here now,” I said as I walked to the edge of the boat. “Might as well try.”

  “Just don’t get off the boat,” Violet warned as she thrust a hand in my direction. “The Argo is protecting us from the ‘having to die’ clause in order to go to the Underworld. I can’t guarantee your safety if you leave.”

  “Noted,” I said before I cupped my hands around my mouth and holler, “Hey Hades! Knock knock!”

  My voice echoed throughout the cavern. It bounced off the walls and made the flames in the fire bowls flicker. When nothing happened, I picked up one of the spare knives we had on the ship and flung it straight at the door. It landed with a solid thunk right into the wood, and I leaned back, crossing my arms with satisfaction. There was no way the god of the dead would ignore that.

  Just as I predicted, the door opened, and a lithe man stepped out. Hades was a broad-shouldered man wearing his expensive and well-tailored suit. He had pale skin, like moonlight on a lake, with high cheekbones and a smooth forehead, devoid of wrinkles or blemishes. His hair was a salt and pepper mix, looking like a celebrity silver fox who belonged in Hollywood.

  The god licked his lips and then looked from the knife in his door to the massive ship outside on his doorstep. He blinked a couple of times as though he was deciding on what to say to us.

  “Long time no see, Hades,” I said, not giving him the chance to speak first.

  “Cheyenne,” the god replied curtly. He nodded his head towards me and then yanked the knife out of the door. He twirled it, letting the tip balance against the tip of his pointer finger. “You make this one too?”

  “As a matter of fact, I did,” I said.

  “Hm,” Hades mused. He held it up in the air, against the light of the flames, examining it. “A little basic, but solid.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “May I keep it?” Hades asked, even though the next thing he did was stick the knife in his pants pocket where it seemed to disappear magically.

  “Call it an offering,” I suggested. I dug my fingers into the side of the boat, knowing that I would have to address the reason we were there. I could only stall with small talk for so long.

  “What brings you to my domain?” Hades promptly asked as he stuck both hands in his pockets. He sauntered forward, right up to the edge of the water. It was as close as either of us could be without invading one another’s territory.

  “I have a favor to ask,” I started.

  Hades’s eyebrows raised. “Another one? Well, aren’t we a greedy demigod?”

  “I prefer hopeful, but you can pick whatever word you want,” I said, trying to keep the conversation as light as possible.

  “Well, I don’t know what to tell you, but I haven’t had any recent loved ones of yours die,” Hades said with a simple shrug. “I don’t know what I could possibly do for you. And frankly, I’m running out of things you can do for me.”

  “I need to borrow the Helm of Invisibility,” I said, deciding that frankness was the best possible route.

  “I see,” Hades mused. He kicked a nearby pebble so that it flew into the black river below. “Define ‘borrow.’”

  I released a heavy and audible breath of air. I glanced over at my friends, who had all gathered on the upper deck by the steering wheel. I could tell that none of them wanted to partake in a conversation with the Lord of the Underworld, and I figured that was fine. He was a scary dude, and I remembered feeling the same way the first time I met him. So after knowing I wasn’t going to receive any help from my friends, I turned back to Hades and laid it all out for him.

  “Hephaestus is an ass,” I began, which caused Hades to bark out a laugh. He covered his mouth as if he surprised even himself, but then he gestured for me to continue, so I did. “He’s not going to help me with the Ultimate Weapon like I need him too. So I’m going to go to the gods I’ve already made weapons for, ask for the magical weapons back, and make the Ultimate Weapon out of those. Once we’ve defeated Eris, I swear on the life of my mother that I will make the same weapons for you and the other gods again.”

  “I see,” Hades said after a significant pause. “Who are the other gods, and
what have they said to your proposal?”

  “Eros and Atropos, but I haven’t asked them yet,” I replied. I shot a sideways glance at Violet, thinking of her brilliant idea to get the Argo here. “I haven’t exactly figured out how to get a hold of the other two yet. I have a thought about Atropos, but Eros, I have no idea.”

  Hades sucked on his teeth. Just then, he began to pace back and forth along the edge of the river. “And am I correct in assuming you need this decision quicker than I would normally be inclined to give it?”

  “According to the Fates, chaos is going to reign at dawn, so yeah, I’d need an answer as soon as possible,” I said, letting my words tumble out of my mouth, revealing my sense of urgency. “What do you say, Hades?”

  The god of the dead inhaled and exhaled deeply. His dress shoes clicked along the rock floor as he paced about contemplating his decision. I did my best not to let my impatience show. I didn’t want to rush him because if I did, he might just say no, and then we would be worse off. However, we were wasting time down here, and we still had two other gods to find and ask.

  “Well, I don’t want to be the one to set a precedent,” Hades concluded after another silent minute. “I think the three of us gods should decide together.”

  My eyebrows shot up to my hairline. “I mean, that would be great. But I don’t know if we have time--”

  “Nonsense,” Hades said as he waved his hand nonchalantly. “I’ll just ask them to hop on over, and then we can get their opinion.”

  I wanted to ask him how he was going to do that, but I held back my stupid question. Hades was a god. I didn’t need to ask how his magic worked. If anything, it seemed rude.

  The god of the dead crossed back to his front door and gestured to the two bowls of fire on either side. He wiggled his fingers as if he was dialing an invisible phone number in midair. Both hands moved simultaneously until the flames flicked to two completely different colors from their standard orange. One was the familiar sickly green, the same shade that I saw when I contacted the Moriai through the Eternal Flame. The second bowl off to the right glowed a bubble gum pink, which I assumed was Eros’s color.