Plague

"Here's the Ambrosia", Zeus said and opened up the gold-plaited titanium box he had placed in front of himself on the large ebony desk. Ariadne stretched her neck to see well. She had heard about Ambrosia all right, the legendary sustenance of the gods. But she had yet to encounter it; the mortals back on Crete had thought the gods ate it all the time, something which was obviously wrong. When Ariadne came to Olympos she had found that the gods ate very much the same thing as the mortals, although more varied and of better quality, not to mention the exotic food they imported from other pantheons from different corners around the world.

This was actually the first time she had beheld Ambrosia. It was shimmering purplish-red egg-shaped forms with a jelly-like structure, sized roughly like half of Ariadne's fist. Cold smoke from the ice surrounding it was leaking out from the box and forming white mists which whirled over Zeus' cluttered desk before they vaporized into the king's large office where reflected morning sun from the outdoor pool danced in the ceiling and shone off golden ornaments. The Ambrosia didn't look that appetizing, Ariadne had to admit, and the smell coming from the box was almost overwhelmingly soggy and sweet.

There were six of those eggs in the box, one for every gathered deity save for Zeus himself. One for Artemis, Apollo, Dionysos, Asklepios, Eileithya and her.

"You think we're going to need it?" Artemis asked her father, seating herself a bit more comfortable in the visitor's chair. It was her nephew Asklepios, sitting next to her who replied in Zeus's stead:
"Taking in mind the intensity of the plague, the speed with which it's spreading and how few we are who can be spared to work with it, Ambrosia will be absolutely necessary. Or we won't cope. Neither the healers nor the sterilizers. "

Artemis made a face:
"Well all right then. Gimme some and let's get it over with. "
"Wait a moment!" Ariadne cut in. "How does this Ambrosia thing work? I used to think gods always ate it."
"Thanks the faiths not!" Artemis exclaimed.
"Oh don't be such a sissy", Apollo returned, although he too had a strained look to his face.

"Sorry Ariadne", Zeus interrupted the twin's exchange. "We're running ahead of facts here again, forgetting that you're a newbie. We don't eat Ambrosia all the time that's true, in spite of what the mortals might believe. Because Ambrosia is not food, it's a drug. A drug that enhances strength, endurance, focus, clarity of mind and fast thinking. More or less necessary for hard tasks that take a lot of energy. Like the mass-healing a plague like this is going to demand. "

Ambrosia was first discovered during the Titan wars and it became more or less the staple ration for the divine soldiers fighting the Titans. It made us stronger and faster, helped us healing our injuries faster and made it possible to be able to fight for days and days without sleep, food or rest. Nectar to keep up the sugar levels and Ambrosia, that was the only thing some of us drank and ate in the end. Needless to say the Ambrosia helped us win.

Since then we are keeping the Ambrosia for special occasions, especially dangerous or hard tasks like the one lying in front of you six. It is not to be used for day to day work, because it does create some kind of addiction.
"Even if it tastes like shit", Artemis cut in.
"It's not meat so what do you expect", Apollo chided.
"It cures hangovers well too", Dionysos told.
"But what is it really?" Ariadne asked. "Is it a fruit? An herb?"

"It's nothing like that", Zeus explained. "It's an otherworldly object. It 'grows' – in absence of a better world – in Kodos, a dimension between this one and the first level of Hades. Some of it can be fond on the shores of Acheron too, but it's not as strong and very rare. Some mortals have been eating it, believing it might return them to the upper world, instead they become trapped in eternity between dimensions, quite a tragedy. "
"Can't they be helped?" Ariadne asked.
"If we find them, which is nearly impossible", Apollo said. "Given of course that we know that there is some poor sod trapped there in first place of course. "

"Travelling to Kodos is quite an effort, so only Hera and I do that when Ambrosia is needed", Zeus went on. "The magic needed to break the barriers and to do it right takes a lot of strength and focus. Because of Kodos' special narrowness in space and time it's even more tiring going there than down to the actual Hades. This time Hera went, that's why she's still asleep today."
"I guessed as much", Eileithya said, "mother is not exactly the sleep-in kind. "

"Mortals use to think it's what keeps us immortal", Ariadne said.
"It kept us in shape during the Titan wars, that's probably where the misconception comes from", Zeus replied.
"Can mortals eat it, and what happens then? Do they become immortal, like the legend says?"
"No way", Zeus laughed at that. "That's another common misconception, I know. Then we wouldn't need the DNA bath you dipped into, sweetheart. Mortals can eat it, true, but it has no effect on them whatsoever, since they lack the receptors for the working substances in the Ambrosia. They get a bit sick, that's the only thing happening. And most of it'll leave their bodies the wrong end."

"I understand them", Artemis said and Apollo rolled his eyes.
"We need to get to work, Asklepios interrupted. The plague is spreading like wild fire as we speak. The god of medicine reached for an 'egg' in the golden box, and as if on a signal Eileithya, the twins and Ariadne's husband rose from their places to come up to Zeus and receive their own 'eggs'. Ariadne, who was last after Artemis, hesitated a second before grabbing hers.

The room went silent as the gods began to consume their Ambrosia; the only thing heard was the chirping birds in the trees outside the open windows and the splashing from a fountain down in the garden. And somebody, Deimos Ariadne guessed, calling out Ares' name somewhere. Ariadne closed her eyes and bit into her egg. It wasn't that repulsive in spite of Artemis' "guck"s next to her. It was sweet. Sweeter than jam, but with a strong undercurrent of umami challening her tounge. And kind of oily with a rubbery feel of growing in the mouth. It did create some sick sensation though and to get over with it fast, Ariadne pressed down the remainings quick and swallowed hard.

Then she experienced what Zeus had been talking about. An emerging strength and feeling of sharpness. Like she was thinking faster and more accurate. Something like the very opposite of being drunk. Ariadne looked around at the gathered gods and goddesses. They too had another glow to their eyes, even Artemis looked content. And Eileithya had a gleeful sheen of ecstasy in her large, brown eyes.
"I feel like I can take on the Typhon", she cheered."
"Oh, you don't want to do that", Apollo replied. "Remember how bad it wounded some of us, including dad."
"Yet she will have", Asklepios said. "There's billions of little typhon's out there and they are after the mortals. "
"Ask is right", Zeus nodded to his grandson. "Get out there and start working now! This Ambrosia will last for about 48 hours, then there's more available in the cold cellar should it be needed."

The plague which had hit Tiryns in Western Hellas had killed hundreds already and those surviving had been desperately pleading to Apollo and Asklepios in the temples. When the calls for help had reached Olympos, the father and son had gathered a little group of deities with accurate healing abilities and then Asklepios had told roughly what they were dealing with and how healing worked in the case of a plague. It was different than closing a wound or curing minor illnesses. Since there was viruses to battle the healing would consist of raising each victim's immune defence to a level where it could battle the viral infection and win.

"Since we can't take every single virus down we will have to do it this way, help the afflicted to heal themselves," Ask said as they neared Tiryns. "And we have to work fast and merciless, we have to work with those not yet ill or those in the early state of illness. The really ailing ones, those on the border of dying, we can do nothing about. "
"We can't?" Eileithya said. "I thought…"

"Even with Ambrosia we can't." Ask replied. "Well in theory we can, but it'll take too much time and effort and in the end we will accomplish next to nothing because the plague will spread faster than we can heal. Artemis! It'll be your task to cord off the city, prevent arriving mortals from entering. Dad and Dion, you'll work on sterilizing the perimeter and then work yourself inwards killing viruses as you go. Ari and Ell, you come with me to work with healing downtown the way I showed you."
"Hope I don't get the blame for this plague at least", Artemis said, "just because people might see me."
"You might and you might not", Apollo replied. "Live with it, sis! I've been there done that too. I was blamed for the plague in…"

Ariadne didn't hear the rest of the exchange since she and Ell and Ask flew into the town to start working on the mortals instead.

Asklepios guided Ariadne to her first ill mortal. It was a woman in her early 20ies, lying down in her bed behind drawn curtains on the second floor of a middle-class mason, on top of the family's business, a bakery. The woman's face was ashen and sweat trickled over her forehead and dampened her dark curls. When Ariadne touched her forehead it burned hot beneath the goddess' soft hand.

"Close your eyes and concentrate", Ask told Ariadne. "See if you can feel the viruses in her blood. Use your inner vision!" Ariadne did as told and after a first failed try she saw the viruses all right. Little round blotches much like the soft pillows people used for their chairs. It was hard to think that such a tiny thing could be so lethal. But then she saw them breaking and entering the human cells, trashing the tissue apart, killing as they went.

"They're usurping the cellular recreation system, forcing the cells to produce more viruses instead of new cells, Ask explained. Now concentrate on wiping those cells out. "
"How?"
"You simply "pop" them – like this!"

Ask showed her how to smash them using divine magic. And then he showed her the body's immune defence, showed her how to create more cells using the dead viruses for raw material, and also how to make the immune defence cells sturdier and more enduring.
"Work like this and you'll have saved this lady in another 25 minutes. Then put her to sleep and go on with her husband. I'll go down doing the same for the kids. After that we'll go next door. "

Ariadne obeyed, she took the woman in her burning hand while working. Not because it was necessary but because she felt like doing that. She felt that the woman was responding to her tenderness without being able to understand what was happening. She could not see Ariadne, who had rendered herself invisible and she could not really feel the touch of her divine hand, she only smiled lightly, feeling that something was happening, someone had heard her prayers.
"Gods?" she wispered with dry lips and Ariadne nodded silently.

First nothing seemed to happen but then Ariadne saw how the woman was beginning to heal herself, her health slowly beginning to improve. Her fever cooled of, her breathing became more regular and she stopped hallucinate the way she had done when Asklepios and Ariadne had entered her chamber.

Finally almost all the viruses were gone from her body and she was cured from a disease that would have killed her hadn't the gods interfered. Ariadne put the woman to sleep so she could rid herself off the last symptoms and begin to regain her strength. The goddess never bothered asking the woman's name; instead she went down into the bakery shop and begun working on the husband. He was a slightly overweight man some five years older and with sandy-coloured hair curling around a round, boyish face.

After curing him Asklepios showed her the houseto the left of the bakery:
"A young boy. None of the other inhabitants have caught it yet, but you might boost their immune defence before you go on further. The house after that is empty and I'll go on the the next one. You'll take the house after and so on… "

Zeus had been right; it sure was a hard task. Ariadne didn't know how she could've managed without the Ambrosia keeping her alert and coping. She worked for hours and hours boosting mortals immune defence to make them able to fight off the killer virus. Perhaps the hardest part was the selection, to ignore the dyings cry out for help and instead focus on those it wasn't too late for. Once or twice she wavered in her conviction, saving the baby of a crying mother or the beloved of a devastated young man. Ask didn't scold her though, he probably knew how tough it was to be hard-hearted and rational when distressed and suffering people were calling out for help around them.

Invisible they worked hour in and hour out, only stopping for seconds to drink from their water sacks. The day drifted on into night, torches were being lit and the cries over the dying increased. Insatiable wailings drifting up in the sky together with the heavy smoke of the funeral pyres.
"Gods, gods, where have we wronged you!? Why have you abandoned us?" an aging priest was crying out by the altar of Apollo.

'We haven't', Ariadne wanted to protest, wanted to show herself in front of the white bearded man. They were doing the best they could, but they were only six, more gods were not possible to spare. And she had after all just been saving his very life by boosting his immune defence into killing the viruses that had found their way into his body. As well as done the same for his wife and teenage children.

Wiping off her tears she asked the god of medicine during a short break:
"What happens to us, if we get infected?"
"You already were, you got it the very first hour in Tiryns. But you never noticed, your divine immune defence dealt with it in seconds. And now you're immune and so are the rest of us. "
"It's so unfair sometimes…"
"Life isn't fair; you know that", Asklepios sighed. "Come, let's go back to work! This is going to be a long night."

Quite correct. The night became long and tedious, and in the wee hours the crying mortals begun to grate on Ariadne's nerves. When dawn broke Ariadne felt like they had accomplished nothing, people were still dying in hordes around them.
"It's always like this," Eileithya said, "the mortals discover the deceases too late, when it's already too far gone and we'll lose so many. "
"But this time we were a little bit luckier," Ask answered the daughter of Hera. "This time we were able to discover what was going on while the viruses were still limited to Tiryns and its closest surroundings. "

In time for sunrise Apollo and Dion were done with their work and begun to help the other three.
"This is not good", Apollo said. "You have only been able to hold it off a bit."
"Don't you think they have been doing their best?" Dion replied.
"Yes we have." Eileithya snarled. "So don't come here being smart with us now when…"
"Knock it off!" Ask cut in. "We're not supposed to waste time and energy with arguing. Back to work!"

He was good at discipline, the god of medicine, Ariadne thought. Even better than his somewhat tempered father and almost in level with Zeus himself. Ariadne was glad having him by her side, he was able to encourage them all and keep them focused on their work while the hours dragged on inside this city of death.

It took until the afternoon before they began to see a difference. Then the death-rate began to dwindle and the sick were actually able to rise and walk out of their beds.
"Have them staying down!" Asklepios warned though. "They are week and need their rest or they might catch something else, like pneumonia. On top of that some of them are still carrying some viruses and might pass them on."

When night fell on the second day the mortals began to notice the change too and started to thank the gods instead.
"Soon Artemis can lift the ban on the town", Asklepios confirmed. "Probably at midnight, and at that hour not many are travelling so she can come here helping us instead. "

In spite of the Ambrosia Ariadne began to tire when the second night moved towards its end, and she was actually wishing for another of those Kodean eggs.
"Would it be possible?" she asked Dion.
"Wait till this effect wears off completely", her husband replied. "Backing up too early is seldom effective. And I don't know how much extra Amobrosia they brought to Olympos this time."

It turned out that they had to send Apollo back for more of the drug since they needed to spend a third day in Tiryns with working on getting rid of the last traces of plague. Apollo and Artemis were sent off to try tracing down stray mortals who might carry viruses, to prevent a spread of the decease. And when the gods finally gathered in the sacred room in the back of the Asklepios temple Artemis had returned teary-eyed.

"I had to kill him", she sobbed.
"Who?" Ariadne asked.
"The travelling bard. I had to shot him dead. He was too close to the town of Orororalda and too far infected. Had he entered the town he would have brought the plague with him and we had to start all over again, with even more dead. Still it was so hard killing him. After all he was a human being, not some deer or boar. "
"You did the right thing, Artie", Apollo laid a hand on his sister's arm. "Sometimes you have to sacrifice one for the case of many."
"I know, but it was still hard", Artemis said and dried tears from her dark eyes.

Ariadne looked up from the coach where she was resting close to Dionysos.
"Are all the viruses gone now?"
"Most of them, Ask said. And the mortals will be able to deal with those still around. The survivors are either immune or with an enhanced immune defence, something that might last a year. So until the virus mutates the next time we won't see another plague from these little monsters at least."
"Mutates?" Ariadne asked.
"Changes so it becomes dangerous again. These things happen with viruses, that's why we get new deceases now and then which we'll have to deal with. A healing god is never out of work", he smiled dryly.

"If we go home now, we'll make it in time for Hestia's birthday party", Dion changed subject.
"How can you think of partying now, little brother?" Eileithya scolded.
"How can I not? We need something fun to get this tragedy out of the system. Besides it won't help any dead mortals that we hang our head and refuse to party when we get the chance to. "

Eileithya started to protest but Apollo cut her off.
"He's right you know. We sure can need some distraction tonight! "

Artemis and Ariadne looked at each other with risen brows. Apollo and Dionysos agreeing on something! That was definitely worth writing home about.