Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)
~Sage's POV~
"Where is she?" Athena demanded, pacing back and forth in front of me.
"I've told you already, I've told you the same don't thing everyday for the past six months!" I growled. Ares's assistant struck me again. They'd gone with knives, today.
"You're lying! Where is my daughter?" Athena screamed.
I screamed right back at her. I'd become desensitized to the pain at this point. "Mikayla is dead! She's dead and she's never coming back!" I didn't let myself cry like I desperately wanted to.
After Mikayla had gone into that temple, I'd had to fight the creatures. They hadn't stayed long. One of them had lunged at me, shifting into some monstrous wolf form, but I'd thrown it aside and into the side of a tree. Then they'd all glanced at the temple, then turned and left.
I don't know exactly how long I'd waited outside the temple, but, finally, one of the twin girls returned. She'd made me swear on the Styx not to tell anyone what she told me or about what had happened, saying it could put alot of people in danger, and I'd done so. Then she told me that Mikayla hadn't survived. She told me Mikayla had died.
To put it bluntly, that clearing was larger when I left than it was when I arrived. The temple remained unharmed, by whatever forces kept it the way it had been since ancient times, but the surrounding trees? Gone.
I'd returned to Olympus after that. Not too long after, I was summoned to Olympus. They'd finally turned to me in their search for Mikayla.
When I got there, Athena surprised me. She put some enchanted chains on me, ones that kept me from using any sort of godly power whatsoever. And she questioned me. About Mikayla, where Mikayla was, what I had done with Mikayla. Didn't care when I told her the truth, that I didn't do anything with Mikayla, she left on her own and she did something and now she was dead.
Not the entire council agreed with Athena keeping me locked up, at least. Really, only a few of them did. Ares agreed, only because he thought it was fun to hurt people, and would often hurt me himself, rather than having one of his assistants help Athena beat answers out of me. Artemis agreed with her, but only because she'd always seen Mikayla as a potential huntress, and thought that my time spent in her company was corrupting her, that I was just some nasty scum of the earth like what she thought all men to be. And Zeus agreed, if only because he was afraid of me and my power and Athena kept me contained.
None of the rest of the council could go against Zeus's order. They might have been able, if Poseidon and Hades were on Olympus. I knew Hades would be on my side, he'd really become like another father figure to me as he trained me. I didn't know for sure about Poseidon, but I knew his moral compass was getting better than it had been, especially due to his loyalty to his son and what he thought his son would choose.
But neither of Zeus's brothers were on Olympus. Olympus had conveniently closed down right after Mikayla had vanished with Aliya. No one could get in or out, nor could they get messages through. All contact was cut.
Hades, though, had gone back down to the Underworld to govern the souls and keep things running, Persephone going with him because she felt like spending more time with her husband. The seasons were no longer affected by where she spent her time, like in ancient times, which gave her more freedom. And Poseidon had gone back to the seas to protect him realm against some petty wars waged on him by multiple old sea deities and spirits. I doubted either of them even knew what was going on.
The other Olympians who did not agree with how I was treated did what they could to help. Athena didn't care what happened to me while she wasn't questioning me. Apollo would bring over salves and creams and do his best to heal me. Demeter made sure I had food when I was locked in the iron cage in the corner of the throne room, which was most of the time. Dionysus, on more than one occasion, offered me enough alcohol to forget the day's events. I accepted a few times. Hestia took to starting and tending her fire near enough to me that I kept warm. Hermes brought me items and objects whenever I requested them, usually a photo or something from Mikayla and I's home. Hephaestus gave me a fully functional cybernetic hand, after Ares got a little too excited one day. Hera constantly tried to get her husband to lift his orders. Aphrodite would make sure I had company so that I would not get bored. She would usually send Aliya to sit outside the cage and just talk to me.
Aliya hadn't been punished after she helped Mikayla. She had returned to Olympus, and Athena had wanted to kill her then and there, but Aphrodite stopped her. Aliya hadn't broken a single law or disregarded a single order. She'd in fact had Aphrodite's express permission to take her friend away from any dangerous situation that may have arisen. Athena didn't like it, but Aphrodite would not back down, and Zeus had been forced to allow Aliya to remain without consequence because of his own orders, because there had been no order against her helping Mikayla.
I knew that Aphrodite always sent Aliya because Aliya was Mikayla's friend. Most times, Aliya and I would talk about her. Aliya and I actually became friends, though nowhere near as close as Mikayla and I were. I confided many things in her, things I'd never been able to say to Mikayla.
All in all, things were pretty good for being kept in a cage and tortured every morning in front of the assembled council that was still on Olympus. She always did it in front of all of them, always did it right when the daily meeting started, so they'd have to stay and see. She was showing them that she had more power currently, that Zeus sided with her on this.
Ares was about to strike me again for screaming at Athena when a cold voice ordered, "Stop right where you are."
Everyone looked to where the voice had come from, to the entrance of the throne room. There was a girl standing there, probably somewhere around sixteen. She had shoulder length hair, dark brown with a silky and lustrous look. Her eyes were deep blue, like the ocean, or like sapphires. She was wearing a pale blue hoodie and jeans. I had no idea who she was, and no one else seemed to know, either.
"Who are you?" Athena demanded.
"I suppose none of you would recognize me. I haven't been corporeal since even the ancient times." She drawled.
"What do you speak of, girl?" Zeus asked.
"Don't presume to call me girl. I am far older than you are, and you would do well to remember it." Her blue eyes seemed to light on fire when she said that, but it passed quickly. "Does nothing give it away? I guess I've been too subtle with the hints." Her form flickered, and she was wearing a pale blue dress instead of the hoodie and jeans. She wore a small and simple diadem on her head, made completely of dark blue sapphire.
Zeus blanched at the sight. "It can't be." He said.
"It can, indeed." The girl said. Her form flickered back into the hoodie and jeans, but she kept the diadem. "I am corporeal once again."
"We welcome you to Olympus, Eleos." Zeus said. "A feast shall be prepared, and a ball, perhaps."
"No." She said.
"No?" Zeus asked. He sounded not afraid, not angry, but almost like he was trying very hard not to offend her.
"I don't need a feast, I don't need a ball." Eleos waved a hand dismissively. "But there is something you can do for me."
"Anything." Zeus said a little too quickly.
"Great. Release him." She gestured to me. Zeus began to protest, but she cut him off. "Did you not just say that you would do anything? Because I have plenty of witnesses here that could attest to you saying that."
"Of course, Eleos." Zeus said. "Athena, release the boy."
"I will not-" Athena was cut off by a death glare from Zeus. She begrudgingly took the chains off of my wrists. Whoever this Eleos chick was, she was powerful or important or both.
"With all due respect, Eleos, you must know that we cannot allow the boy to run rampant. He's the embodiment of evil, he's the new Tartarus." Zeus started.
"And that is where you are wrong, my friend." Eleos announced. "You know full well that the embodiment of evil has nothing to do with Tartarus. You know full well exactly who the embodiment of all evil is, who my enemy is, who those who seek to end me are."
"Furthermore," she continued, "you know full well that this boy has done not a single thing wrong in his entire mortal life, nor in his entire immortal life. In fact, he's a perfect candidate for my court if he were to so choose."
"Ah, yes, your court. They're welcome to stay on Olympus." Zeus offered. "But I really must disagree with you about the boy. While he may not be as bad as your enemy, he does happen to be-"
She cut him off again. "I vouch for him." Zeus blinked in surprise. She spoke louder. "I vouch for him. You all know what that means. Lay a hand on him at all, and you'll face the judgement of Styx. She'll decide whether you're within the rules or breaking your vows."
Zeus next tried to change the topic. "Eleos, why don't you tell us about your becoming corporeal?"
She glanced towards me but looked away so quickly that I wondered if it'd actually happened. "There are some secrets I can and will not share. All I will tell you is that I was approached by Eleos and that I succeeded where others like me have failed. I released her from her existence to fade away as gods do, and I took her place. I am the new Eleos, like Sage Tucker is the new Tartarus." She explained. "It has gone differently for me than it did for him, but it was much the same. Her immortal soul did fade away, and her essence did meld with my own soul, but I retain much of her knowledge, which Sage does not."
"Who were you, before?" Zeus asked.
She shook her head. "That is not something I am at liberty of discussing. Not now, if ever." She answered. "Now, I'll be taking my leave. Sage, if you'll come with me, please."
I made my way over to her, slowly, trying to ignore the golden blood dripping down from the wounds I'd already received before she arrived. She looked to Ares, then Athena, then back to Zeus. "You three are in for the time of your immortal lives." She declared. "You've managed to piss of a whole bunch of gods, now they've heard all about what's been happening because you've been lax with keeping Olympus closed today."
"What?" Zeus asked.
"Hades sees Sage almost like a son. Poseidon's moral compass points to whatever Percy would do, and while the boy's never met Sage, he's met family members of his, and actually became pretty good friends with two of them living in New Rome." Eleos explained. "As for gods related to his family, there's quite a few. Physis, Aether, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite, Hypnos, Iris, and Hecate. And who was it, Hephaestus, you're getting friendly with his sister?"
"Wait, Orianne what?" I asked.
Hephaestus looked down, a blush on his face. "She's got an inventor's mind, with all her new and innovative hair designs." He muttered. He glanced apologetically at me.
"That's fine, just don't hurt her. I'm happy as long as Orianne's happy." I told him. It was true, of course, if my sister was happy with someone, then I wouldn't force them away. He smiled a little, but didn't meet my gaze.
"C'mon, Sage. Come with me. We'll leave them to figure out what the hell they're doing now on their own." Eleos said to me, nodding towards the doors. "I'll heal you once we get you home. Let's head to your house."
She flashed us there once the doors were closed behind us. We appeared in the bathroom, where she retrieved a first aid kit and instructed me to sit on the edge of the bath tub.
"So, who exactly are you?" I asked as she began cutting cloth for bandages.
"I am Eleos." She said. "The original Eleos was seen as more a concept than a deity in ancient Greece, and so what the people believed became reality. She became a presence, rather than the goddess she was born as. She was okay with that, because she was a concept they tried to practice."
"What was the... Concept?" I asked. She lifted my torn shirt from shoulders and tossed it on the floor. I hissed through my teeth when she set a wash cloth with some form of antiseptic on it against one of my wounds.
"Pity. Mercy. Clemency. Compassion." She answered. "My Roman form is forgiveness and mercy, but there's really no difference between my forms like there is for some gods. The name of my Roman form, Clementia, also means humanity in Latin. Basically, I am supposed to be the embodiment of good."
"Who were you before?" I asked. "Before you were Eleos?"
There was an almost shattered look in her eyes. "Who I was no longer matters. I can't tell anyone, and I can't be me ever again. It's best if everyone just forgets about me." She responded.
"You can't tell anyone?" I asked slowly.
"No. I have to keep my identity a secret to protect those I love. My enemy would only hurt them to get to me. They are mortal, and they can die easily. And I wouldn't wish the pain on my immortal loved ones. If my enemy were to get to me, this world would fall to ruin." She said. She tied a bandage just a little tighter than need be around my chest, but I don't think she realized it.
"You have mortal family?" I asked.
"I was, am, a mortal. I was born a demigod, but now I am neither demigod nor goddess. I am mortal, but I have the powers of a minor god and powers uniquely my own that I have yet to understand." She explained quietly. "My enemy has killed many a young girl in her efforts to help the original Eleos, but they do not know that I remain mortal now that I have succeeded. They do not even know that I have succeeded. It is best for it to stay that way as long as possible. Already, they try to exterminate my court. If they can destroy every member of my court, then I will be forced to face them. And if it comes down to that, then I know that it is nearly impossible for me to win. As long as at least one person remains to carry on my court, then they cannot get to me without having to physically search and travel to reach me."
"You mentioned something earlier, you said I'd be a perfect candidate for your court." I didn't really ask a question, but she understood what I was trying to figure out.
"You have a pure heart, Sage Tucker. Any and all who wish to join my court may, so long as they truly wish to do so, and so long as there lies no ulterior motive in their heart. My court fights the good fight, doing what good they can in the world. Before I was corporeal, it was that you had to travel to my ancestral home to become a member of my court. It is why my court has always been small. There have been honorary members all over the world, but they were not true members. Now, though, any can join at any time, because I am back and stronger than before." She explained. "It is an opportunity for anyone who wishes to do good in the world. Many reach honorary status, but you must know of it to join, first of all. My court has long been comprised of mortals, clear sighted mortals, demigods, minor gods, satyrs and nymphs and other nature spirits, and many other supernatural races. My court is a welcoming place to anyone who wants to be there, and have always acted as a family."
"You would really let the ruler of Tartarus join your court?" I asked.
She gave me a smile. "It would be my honor to have you join if you so wished."
She worked on my wounds in silence for the next few minutes. When she was done, I spoke again. "I think I'd like to join."
Her eyes shone happily. "You already have. You became a member the moment you decided in your heart that you'd like to join." She told me. Then she flashed away.
Eleos stayed in the guest room of my house while my wounds healed, which took a long time, because Ares certainly knew how to make wounds last. She helped me around the house, and would check on the bandages every so often, and change them when they soaked through with gold. That still got me, even after years of being immortal, having golden blood instead of red.
It was six weeks before they were finally healed, three before they were healed enough for me to actually go out and do things without her disapproving looks.
The first thing I did was go spend time with my family, seeing as I up and left one day then didn't return for like seven months. They were all glad to see me, but stopped asking why I'd been gone so long after they saw my reaction to their questions.
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