"I'm never going to be able to clean all of this blood off of my hands," Eris said. She examined the blood on her hands and smiled happily. It was a really good day. No, it was a good week. Eris had so many options on who she wanted to work her anger out on. She really wanted to get back to Arcadia, as the goddess had been alone for too long. Her wounds would be mostly healed. Granted, that just made Eris' job easier.
Getting the goddess to talk about the Sixth Legion was a little more challenging than Eris expected, but she could make it work. She always did. After Eris was finished with the goddess, she would go back to the imperator. It was tempting really. All she had to do was walk down a few halls and be back to working on the imperator. Reyna wouldn't be moving for a long time though.
Eris glanced to her left, at a closed door. Eirene was behind the door, and even though the goddess of peace would never admit it, she was nervously awaiting to hear from her favorite mortal. It shouldn't have taken thirty minutes to kill someone, but maybe, the mortal just didn't know what she was doing. Eris taught her how to use the sword though. The pointy and sharp part went into flesh. It didn't matter where.
"Any advice for this?" Eris asked. She held up her blood covered hands and looked to her right. One of the peacekeepers, the healer, was kneeling by Burza. What was that healers name? Pie? Piga? Eris frowned and looked down.
"It wasn't wise to break the spine of one of your peacekeepers," the healer answered. She knelt by Burza's face and tried to wipe the blood away. Eris rolled her eyes in annoyance, but she also smiled. Pia. That was the peacekeepers name. She kept lecturing Eris about hurting people, which didn't make any sense. Eris' favorite thing was hurting people. "Burza is going to be out of commission for weeks. How is she suppose to assassinate your targets?"
"I hear a lot of complaining and not a lot of healing," Eris commented. She looked down at Burza. Between what Camp Half-Blood did and being punished for her complete and utter failure, Burza wouldn't be conscious for at least a week. Eris was going to do even worse though, after the peacekeepers completed their job.
"Even with my string, I have a limit to my healing," Pia snapped. "I healed the negotiator and brought her back from the brink of death. You still want me to heal the imperator, so you can break her bones again. You wanted me to heal Burza. Next, you will want me to heal that goddess!"
"Eirene isn't going to be happy, when she learns that you are speaking back to me," Eris said. Pia flinched and looked down. Eris smiled and knelt in front of the child of Apollo. "Burza is going to be an example to all of you. Eirene is not longer going to tolerate failure. I will be your punishment. Understood?"
"Understood," Pia repeated. She knelt by Burza and gently studied her face. Pia took a deep breath and placed two hands to Burza's chest. She started to chant under her breath. Eris snorted and turned her head. That stupid daughter of Jupiter had to be back on her feet, only to send the demigod leaders straight to Tartarus. After that, Eris was going to enjoy ending her miserable life.
Eris glanced at the corner of the room. The daughter of Pluto was sulking around and watching them. Eris smirked and walked out of the room. Along the way, she picked up a metal baseball bat and practiced her swing. It was a little too much fun honestly.
As Eris walked around their base, she didn't find any other peacekeepers. It was odd. One of them was usually kneeling in her room at this time and praying to the sun god or something weird like that. The others would be arguing with each other. It was like they had all disappeared. Did Eirene send them on a mission and keep Eris out of the loop again?
Eris sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was inside of Eirene's temple. Eris walked towards the wall and almost slipped. She whirled around, expecting an attack. Eris was alone though. Her gaze slowly moved around the temple and then towards the ground. It seemed as if she had slipped on Golden Ichor.
Eris followed the small trail of Golden Ichor towards the exit. Then, she turned and followed it back to the hidden wall in Eirene's temple. Oh no. She was in big trouble. Eris opened the wall and stepped inside. Even though she knew exactly what she would find, she followed the trail to the empty room that once held a goddess.
Oh, Eris was in big trouble. Eirene was actually going to kill her for this. The goddess of peace was a big stickler for making sure her plans were followed to the letter, and Eris had been diverting from the plan just a small bit. She was suppose to finish with Arcadia before turning towards Reyna, but the imperator was so much more fun. There was so many options to work with.
It was fine though. Everything that she would have learned from Arcadia could also be learned from Reyna. Sure, the goddess had seen that Eirene and Eris were working together, but no one would believe her. Things would be fine. Eris really hoped they would be.
Eris blinked and found herself back at the peacekeeper's base. She looked around the room and found that Pia and Burza were gone. Eris rolled her eyes. Why did the peacekeepers insist on taking their injured to the infirmary? It was just going to bloody up perfectly good blankets.
After taking a few deep breaths, Eris walked towards the room that Eirene was in. She stepped into the room and was met with a furious glare. Eirene glared at her and spoke, "I said that I did not want to be disturbed!"
"Arcadia escaped," Eris said. A phone flew by her head, and she blinked. Eris looked down at the broken remains of the phone. "How is your mortal going to contact you now?"
Two hands wrapped around Eris' neck and slammed her into the wall. Eris grabbed onto Eirene's hands and stared at the goddess. Was Eirene actually getting physical? Eris was happy to see it, but she wished that it was focused on someone else.
"I do not need your mouth," Eirene hissed. She tightened her grip. "What do you mean Arcadia escaped? She saw us together. This will ruin everything. How did she escape?"
"I didn't stay around long enough to find out," Eris said. She grabbed onto Eirene's hands and pried them from her neck. She shoved the goddess of peace backwards. "She must have slipped out of her chains and escaped. There is no other explanation for it."
"We can salvage this," Eris continued. She grabbed Eirene's shoulder tightly. "I will make the imperator tell me everything that she knows. She's already broken down a few times, and Zara is doing her weird death thing. We can still do this."
"You're right. We just need to use the string. Where did you put it?" Eirene asked. Eris frowned. String? There was the strings that belonged to the peacekeepers, and that was it. "I gave you a few strings and told you to not let a specific one out of your sight. Do you remember?"
"Of course," Eris said. She remembered that Eirene handing her the strings and telling her about them, but that didn't mean she was paying attention to everything that Eirene said. All she knew was that she had to give the strings to the peacekeepers. Simple as that.
"So, where is Hylla's string?" Eirene questioned. Eris frowned. Wasn't Hylla the older sister of Reyna? Why would Eirene have her string, or was she a new peacekeeper? Eris couldn't keep any of them straight. "Where is it?"
"With the other peacekeepers. I gave the other strings to Beleza and held onto Zara's, like you requested," Eris replied. For some reason, Eirene looked ready to strangle her again. "Did you say anything else after that?"
"I said not to give the string to anyone!" Eirene yelled. The building shook from the might of her voice, and Eris almost flinched. Eirene's finger slammed directly into her chest. "That string was vital to my plans!"
"Why didn't you say so?" Eris asked. Eirene's face turned a very bright shade of red. Was she mad? Eris didn't know why. Eirene had nothing to be mad about. "That doesn't make sense anyway. If we have Hylla's string, why do you want me to destroy Reyna?"
"Did you pay attention to a word that I said," Eirene snapped. Eris rolled her eyes and was shoved backwards. Eirene started to pace back and forth. Eris had never seen Eirene this angry before, and she was kind of proud of herself. How great was she to push the goddess of peace this far, even if that goddess didn't really have a reason to be angry. Eris had done everything that had been asked of her, or at least the stuff that she remembered.
"I always do," Eris said. "I am still confused though. If you are going to use the string to convince Reyna to do your bidding, why would you have me torture her?"
"You are the worst listener that I have ever met in my life. You are the reason that this world will continue down its horrible path," Eirene snapped. Eris rolled her eyes. "Are you sure that you gave the string to Beleza?"
"Yes," Eris said. She waited for Eirene to get over her sudden temper tantrum. "Why don't you just, I don't know, go find your peacekeeper and demand the string back. She's probably looking up her next target or giving herself a tan. Those are the only two things she has been doing. It shouldn't be too hard to find her."
"You're right," Eirene muttered. She looked down and took a deep breath. "I want you to listen to me, and I mean really listen. Is all of your attention on me?"
"Yes," Eris said. She sat down on the desk. "Even though you insulted me, I am paying full attention to you. What is so important about Hylla's string?"
"I was never going to use to convince the imperator to work with us. The imperator is staying out of our plans, so she cannot interfere. She is not leaving those chains, understood?" Eirene asked. Eris nodded. "Good. I am going to use Hylla's string to convince her wife to hold a dinner meeting with the rest of the demigod leaders, and they will be served poisoned food and drinks. My peacekeepers will be there to clean up the mess."
"Not a bad plan. Come on," Eris said. She walked out of the room. "Let's get the string from Beleza. The last I saw of her was when she was with Zara. She probably went to help Zara, so the two are with the imperator."
Eirene nodded, pushed past her, and stormed down the hallway. Eris followed behind. She didn't know why Eirene was so stressed out about everything. Why did it matter if the Olympians learned about Eirene's involvement? What were they going to do? Punish her?
Eris followed Eirene down the twisting halls. A small part of her was concerned that she didn't sense or see any of the peacekeepers, but they were doing their own thing. Eris needed to focus on the objective in front of her.
"Let me go first," Eris said, as they stopped outside of the room that Reyna was in. She hoped the demigod was awake. It would just be rude to interrupt Reyna's sleep. A smile came to Eris' face, and she shoved the door open. "I hope you had a good rest. We're going to have some more fun today."
Eris looked into the room and blinked a few times. There was no one in the room. Eris slowly looked around. Obviously, she had stepped into the wrong room. Even though there was dried blood on the floor and a couple of broken baseball bats scattered about, this couldn't be the right room.
"Get the peacekeepers together. Now," Eirene hissed. Eris nodded once and quickly walked away from the room. She walked towards the infirmary and peeked inside. There was no one inside, which was weird. Pia should have been paying attention to her patient. Where were all of the peacekeepers?
Eris walked out of the infirmary and checked every room in the base. She didn't find anyone at all. The rooms that the peacekeepers slept in were completely empty. The peacekeepers didn't have much anyway, but they still had a few pairs of clothes.
"Eirene, we have a situation," Eris called. She looked down and tried to think. Reyna didn't know where her second in command was. The peacekeepers didn't either. The disappearance of Reyna and Arcadia were not connected. The disappearance of the peacekeepers and Reyna was connected though. Why would the peacekeepers betray them?
A loud crash sounded throughout the base. Eris rolled her eyes and went to the source of the sound. Eirene grabbed a table and threw it at the wall. Eris spoke, "I haven't seen this side of you before. You need to calm down."
"Everything is falling apart," Eirene snapped. She threw a chair at Eris. It took a few moments for Eris to ignore the fact that Eirene was trying to direct the anger towards her. She had done nothing wrong. "I have been trying to bring this world to peace for so long. Now, my plans are ruined."
"We can use this," Eris said. She grabbed Eirene's shoulder. "At the moment, it seems like the world is against you, but it isn't. We can still manipulate Hylla's wife. We don't have Hylla's string, but they don't know that. We can turn the peacekeepers against the Olympians and sweep up the pieces. Let me take the lead on this one, Eirene. I can teach you all about chaos."