The plot thickens

"No, brothers," Artemis sadly shook her head, droplets of rain falling from her ox-blood coloured leather hood. "No, I can trace the patterns of Hebe and her kidnappers this far. But then nothing. Someone must've deployed some kind of scrambling magic."
"What's that? Scrambling magic?" Herakles wanted to know, cursing the rain which got in between his jacket and bare skin. He had not yet really learned to shield manually, and hence protect himself against small nuisances like this, although the divine shielding worked well as reflexes against real dangers. But rain, mosquitoes and drifting sand actually demanded that you thought about shielding or you'd be bothered by these little harmless but irritating effects.
"It's a kind of magic used to hide people's soul patterns. Divine as well as mortal ones," his sister replied. She looked from Herakles to Ares and then back again. "I'm really sorry. I can trace her about this far but then all I sense is a jumble of different patterns, like footprints smeared out in clay and rain."

"And if not even you can trace it, then it's bad," Ares stated. "It means that these who took her were prepared for Olympos. They had done their homework well. So what do we do now?" Ares' voice sounded cool and calculating, but Herakles knew his brother well enough to understand that he was deeply worried about his little sister.
"We better go home and initiate a worldwide scan. Search the planet bit by bit to try to locate Hebe," The goddess of hunt suggested.
"That could take weeks!" Ares replied, some tenseness finally showing in his voice.
"Do you have any better proposition?" Artemis returned.
"I wish I did. I wish I did!" the god of war sighed and wrinkled his brow. "I prefer an honest battle, face to face with the enemy. Cowards who skulk in the dark and sneak away with their booty is the worst kind of adversaries."

"What do you think happened to her, Artemis? Can you sense anything about what took place tonight?" Herakles asked. "And does it really have some connection to the lost boy? Iaskar. The little bullied misfit I gave some training to stand his ground?"
"Did you say he was a Titan?" Artemis asked, her eyes loosing themselves across the horizon as if she was doing a last attempt to sort and trace the soul patterns of Hebe and her abductors.
"Rumours has it at least. The people at the Academeia told a story about Iaskar's mother having been raped by a Titan and that she had birthed this child and left it at the altar of Apollo. You think he might know anything, Artie?"

"I'm not sure," the goddess of hunt replied and bit her lower lip. "My brother has never been the one to pay that much attention to children left in his temples."
"I guess compared to you very few does." Ares said. "I check them out now and then to see if they are good soldier materiel, but I don't take care of them like you do, I have to admit. Then again there are very few coming to me that way. After all I am the God of War, not the god of daycare."
"If he was a Titan. I mean IF," Artemis cut off Ares' tirade. "Then that might very possibly be some kind of clue."

"Let's consider the Titans took her," Herakles said. "Then I'd foremost ask myself why. I mean why now? I know that if there's a surviving gang of Titans lingering somewhere out therem, they might most definitely feel they have bones to pick with the modern gods who defeated them. And definitely with the Olympians. But why striking now?"
"Because Hebe was exposed and vulnerable, residing far way from Olympos," Ares said. "An easy target."

"Sure and now is as good as any time I guess you might say. Poor little Hebe!" Artemis sounded as if her heart was about to break. She too loved her young step sister and at the moment she felt like she wanted to strike out against someone – anyone – who could have had anything to do with the disappearance of Hebe. She wanted to go home and dip one of her arrows in lethal poison and shoot it right up their ass. Only that she knew not upon whom those asses sat. Ares was right, enemies who skulked in the dark were of the worse kind.

"I just wonder how the bastards may have done it." Ares grumbled. "How did they know that now was the time to strike anyhow?"

0O0O0O

"The plan was probably initiated way earlier." Athena reasoned, picking up Ares' thread. Almost all of the gods were now gathered in Zeus' large reception hall, which felt chilly in spite of the fires blazing in the fireplaces to the sides and in the pit in the middle. Zeus and Hera were in their thrones, but this meeting was far from any formal conference. Hera was red-eyed and grasping her husbands' hand and even the great king looked sad and worried. The threesome which had flown down to Cyprus and back were standing in front of the royal couple and most of the other gods and goddesses were sitting on chairs and cushions around the royalties. Athena had taken her position to the right side of Zeus, arms crossed over her chest and a thoughtful look upon her striking face.

"I'm pretty certain," the goddess went on, "that those who took Hebe, wherever they were Titans or not, planted the boy Iaskar at the Academeia as a kind of rogue. They knew that while Hebe might be an easier catch than most of us she was seldom alone down there. Herakles was there not long ago and both Palaistra, Ares and I have been frequent visitors. Then both Hephaestos and Artemis have been there now and then too. So they needed someone or something to be there and keep the place under surveillance. To make sure Hebe was alone. That no other Olympians were with her. And when everything else in their plan was ready Iaskar acted and Hebe was snatched away."

"With all due respect, sister," Herakles begun. "Iaskar hardly seemed like the evil Titan spy. He was a spurned and shy boy who hid in the corners."
"That was exactly the point," Athena said. "He fooled us all. I for sure didn't suspect him. I hardly noticed him. Meanwhile he was either a regular Titan fighter in disguise as a child or a unknowing tool to set the plot in motion. Perhaps hypnotized to take certain actions under certain circumstances. My guess would be the latter."
"So he was a trap or something?" Palaistra asked.
"You might say that, yes." Athena turned to Hermes' daughter who was sitting next to her father, drying tears from red eyes.
"I knew there was something off with the kid," Herakles mumbled under his breath. Ares, being the only one who heard him, gave him a long and curious look out of the corner of his eyes.

"So what do we do now?" Hermes let up his voice, echoing Ares' earlier question.
"At least we do have a lead." Athena said. Now, of course all the heads turned into her direction. Like so many times before did the sharp-minded daughter of Zeus had thought ahead of everyone else and she naturally became the ultimate centre of attention.
"Athena, tell us!" Hera urged, stifling a sob.
"The temple of Apollo."

The sun god felt the need to reply:
"That track is cold now. It was after all several years ago. And the priests who took care of the boy and turned him over to the Academeia hardly remember anything of the lad. He's far from the only one who..."
"Apollo, we'll have to use other methods," Athena said.
"If you'll force them to remember, poking around in their heads..." Apollo rose.
"Athena can poke wherever she likes if it can help us getting Hebe back, Apollo!" Hera snapped.
"I'm not talking about..." Athena begun but for once she was interrupted. Apollo kept talking:
"I'm worried about Hebe too, but I won't have any of my priests..."
"Then I will!" Hera returned, rising her voice.
"NO WAY!" the Sun god called out.
"Apollo be sensible!" Zeus started.

"Shut UP!" Athena rose her voice even more. "No one has been talking about poking in any priest's heads. Apollo's right, that won't help. They won't remember. We're going to need the Moirae in this."
"The interpreters of the faith?" Herakles asked. "But what can they..."
"Athena's right" Zeus said. "They have the power to see into the past as well as into the future. They have the tools to make it possible to see what happened in the temple of Apollo that day."
"Then why can't they simply locate Hebe where she is now?" Demeter wanted to know.
"Those Titans, or whoever they are, are far from stupid." Athena replied. "They have covered their tracks well, and Hebe's present location is probably 'faith-proof' as well. But I'm quite certain they didn't bother with the events at the temple of Apollo."

0O0O0O

Hebe had spent the hours on the bottom of the round, well-like oubliette first with trying to locate a possible way to escape. Yet even if it would have been possible to open up that hatch, she could not get up there. Not while those magic chains were holding her down. Then she had tried to contact her Olympians using telepathy, but she soon found that this place was cordoned off somehow, it was impossible for her mind to travel further away than a few metres from the imposing, maze-like building where she was held. Chaos, it was even impossible for her mind to make a map over the compound, since it was so jammed with repelling and warping magic that it became impossible for her mind to travel in any certain direction without loosing itself. So she soon gave up on that too.

After that she tried to figure out what her family might do. She was uncertain about the amount of time which might have passed since she was knocked out on Cyprus, but by now the Olympians must surely have learned that she was missing. She so wondered what they planned. Because she held no doubt that her family would be able to find and retrieve her. They were after all the Gods of Olympos.

But then, she felt certain, her kidnappers must know that too. They must know that whatever they did, however well they hid her behind screens of magic, time was not on their side. The Olympians would come for them sooner or later, the way they always had. So whatever her kidnappers intended to do they would have to do it fast. And it couldn't be severing her life and sending her to down under, because then they would probably already have done that. Or - were they just in this moment preparing to do that. Were the hours she has been spending down here only their time to get ready...

The young goddess shuddered as she felt the jagged balls of panic return in her stomach. She forced herself to discard that dread once again. For what time in order she did not know. She looked at the scull opposite her.
"I'm not going to end up like you, I swear that, do you hear me." she told the earless, featureless head. "I don't know who you were, when you were that who or how you ended up here, but I swear I'll revenge you as well."

Those words gave her some kind of strength to force the panic back in the darkest corner of her mind again. Then she began to think about Iaskar. It couldn't be a coincidence that the boy had slipped out of bed the very same night as she was kidnapped. There must be some connection, some clue somewhere. But what? If she could only grasp his part in this she was sure she would understand quite a bit more of her mysterious kidnappers.

0O0O0O

Zeus gave Hera a napkin against the tears as they left the throne room and started back to their private wing of the Palace.
"Darling," he said and put his arm around her shoulders, "we will get her out! Do not ever doubt that. With our combined strength, skills and determination we will get your daughter away from the fangs of these beings, whoever they are. They will learn the cost of kidnapping an Olympian. They will learn that the cost is high and that we will make them pay direly no matter what."
"All fancy words, Zeus. But can we really live up to them?"
"Sweetheart, don't you doubt such a thing. We have been worse off before. Remember those thugs who took Ares. Or…"

"Zeus, Ares might have been young and naïve at the time but already back then he was tough and strong and with a sturdy mind. He has never let anyone intimidate him. Hebe's more sensitive and tender. She'll… She's not a tough goddess in that sense. She's gentle and caring, she has a great hand with the little ones and she listens, hears and understands what is the matter with people before anyone else does. Her father was a healer, she has his traits in her blood. But naturally she has nothing from you - the storm god, the durable warrior who backs away from nothing, not even the evil Kronos or the horror that was Typhon. She won't stand her ground like any of our shared children. Even Hephaestos would fight better than her, he has strong arms and the most stubborn attitude."

"Dearest, I think you're underestimating your daughter. And yourself. You hail from a family of war gods yourself, even if it was centuries since you held a sword. And Hebe might be soft and gentle, Hera, but that doesn't mean she's weak. Believe me, she'll hold her own out there when push comes to show."
"But Zeus, in that place alone..."
"She will cope, and she will know that she's not abandoned. That there are people coming for her. She'll prevail I'm sure of that. And then, if she'll be a bit beaten when we get her out of there, you'll take well care of her the way I know you can, Hera. So dry your tears and try to be strong now. We'll fix this! I give you my words."

"Zeus – when I was the same age as her…"
"You killed Titans by tenfold with that mighty sword of yours. The one you got from your father. Which Ares has now."
"Yeah, The Demotivator. But that doesn't..."
"Then I'll never forget when you threatened to neuter poor Prometheus because he pinched you in the back. Or when you grabbed Atlas by the locks and slammed his head into a marble table so shards flew all over because you were sick of his tries to explain away his alliance with Kronos. Trust me, if Hebe's anything like you, she'll come out strengthened from this!"

Hera didn't reply in words, instead she came up close to her husband and held him hard, borrowing from his famous strength of soul and of mind, letting his potent mentality and his kindness soothe her. Still there was that grating undercurrent there in her mind, the evil little voice telling her that she would never see her beloved daughter again. And she felt so guilty. She had failed Hebe, she had not been able to protect her…

0O0O0O

"Herakles, I want you to come with me to the Faithes" Athena asked of her brother. She was standing on his front porch, the late afternoon light shining off her blond hair which fell like a waterfall down her shoulders.
"Really, why me?" Herakles replied, regarding his sister who had that determined look upon her face, telling him she had already made up her mind about his attendance. In that instance he knew that no matter what he said, she would get her way. That was Athena for you! Still, visiting the faithes didn't seem that appealing to him, he had managed to avoid them and their desolate dwelling since his apotheosis and he was not so sure he was ready to go there now.

"Because you're the only one save for poor Hebe who really encountered Iaskar, and who know his soul pattern. That's essential if we are going to be able to locate his faith in the past."
"Are you sure? You saw him when you were at the Academeia, right?"
"Yes I might have, but I never paid attention to him, so I'm not sure I'd recognize him again. I need your help, Herakles."

Feeling a twist in his belly the god nodded slowly. How could he argue with his favourite sister after all? He asked Athena to wait while he put on a cloak and grabbed something to eat on the run, he feared they would be late for the Grand Family dinner, which usually took place around two hours after sunset.

Not much later they were off the Olympos, in the air and heading northwards to the place the faithes called home. The afternoon was beautiful with a pale sun shining with slanted, orange-tinted rays over a landscape still wet by the day's raining and fluffy clouds drifting across a deep blue sky with their bottoms on fire. It was a bit chilly in the air and lingering thunder could still be heard off in the distance. Herakles felt that during other circumstances he would have enjoyed the flight a lot. But now he was not only nervous about visiting the mysterious and recluse faithes, there was this underlying worry for Hebe too. Somehow, he had come to realize, he blamed himself for her disappearance. Somehow he felt that it was something he ought to have done differently which mattered in the case. Perhaps he should have stayed around. Perhaps he should have kept a closer eye upon his step sister. He said nothing to Athena about these thoughts however.

"Athena?" Herakles asked when they neared their destination. His sister turned her head slightly, she had been silent during their short trip, preoccupied with her own thoughts.
"Yes, Herc?"
"Is there... do you think Hebe... do you think those who took Hebe might've hurt her?"
"I'm not sure. I'm not even sure - she's alive." Athena's voice got cloggy upon the last words, as if she was straining against tears.
"Athena, if they had wanted her dead, why taking her away? Why not kill her on location?"
"Perhaps if they had tried to do it at the Academeia she would have called for help and we would have been there before they could've done her anything. By taking her away and erasing their tracks they'll have a greater chance to open up a gate down under and get rid of her soul. That's not a quick an easy dead after all. Not with an immortal who doesn't really die."

"So you think...?"
"I didn't say that. I actually think they have other plans for Hera's daughter. She's too - valuable to just strike down. Besides it's no secret that our father can locate lost divine souls down under, just given enough time. He'd find Hebe sooner or later if the bastards got the idea of sending her down there. He has even been down to Tartarus to get people out from there. Yet under any circumstances time is essential here, Herakles. Because even if those who have taken Hebe don't succeed in killing her they might still hurt her. Hurt her bad."

Athena's words felt like stabbing knifes in Herakles' chest, and he swallowed hard against the mental pain. He had done nothing wrong, and there was nothing accusatory in his sister's voice, still her words made him feel guilt. All he wanted to do was to grab one of Ares' great axes and venture out and turn every stone there was until he found those who held Hebe. But he knew it was the wrong way. He would never find the little goddess in time that way. The way to do it was the way Athena had chosen for them. To use what lead they had and try to haul it in and see if Hebe was attached to the other end of the thread.

"Can the Faithes find Iaskar?"
"Not where he is now. But where he was then."
"Where he was then? What do you mean? In Apollo's temple?"
"No, where he was before, how he got to Apollo's temple. How he was put there."
"But if it is true then, if he was simply put there by a poor raped woman?"
"Then they can find the rapist," Athena replied. "Don't worry, Herakles, they'll get it done. So far they have never failed. It's only we who have been a bit thick-headed when it comes to interpreting what they've been trying to say to us. That's another reason why I asked you to come. You might push things in a bit of a different perspective than I, who know nothing about that boy."

With her thoughts spinning around in his mind Herakles landed right next to Athena outside a stone mansion perched on a crest of one of those peaky mountains that made up the range north of Olympos. The mansion looked like nothing he had ever seen before. The more or less mandatory Hellenic pillar portico was traded into a single vault, shaped like a droplet at the top, and inside that vault rested a heavy pair of iron double doors. There were no windows as far as Herakles could see, only high, ochre-painted walls covered in vine and in need of repair. It all felt foreboding and unwelcoming and ripe with ancient-old and not necessarily benign magic.

Athena walked up to the doors and sounded a heavy knocker. The booming sound reverberated through the doors like their father's thunder and made a couple of screaming crows take off from nearby trees. A few seconds later the doors opened up to admit the two Olympians. Then Herakles had barely passed through the opening when the doors closed right behind the two visitors with a boom that sounded almost faithful, as if that huge gate was looking them in. On top of that the rim of Herakles' dark-blue cloak nearly became stuck between the doors, in the last instance he managed to pull the cloth closer around himself. Even Athena seemed at ill ease as she glanced behind her at those doors. Then she turned and lead on, the magnificent daughter of Zeus so very reluctant to show any sign of weakness. Herakles on the other hand had a harder time to hide the creepy feeling this place was giving him, and he so wished he had taken a weapon of some kind with him.