"The prophecy is genuine," Rhea said, with a repressed sigh, when the four had recited it to her and explained to her their circumstances.
She was small in the mist that was flung up and out from the small fountain, the shimmering rainbow transformed into a surprisingly clear image of Olympus's old throne room. Though Rhea herself filled most of their line of sight, Cassian could discern just a little of the wreckage of her surroundings. It was dark there, and Cassian found himself at a loss. From what Rowan had told him, the great hall was a place of splendor and light and decadence, build in the towering fashion of the Romans with all the cunning of the Greeks. But what peeked out at him from behind Rhea's glimmering form was a dark and dismal scene.
The high pillars had been cast down into rubble; the fountains scattered about were shattered and ruined, and nothing remained of their former glory but the gentle trickle of the pipes, halfheartedly attempting to pursue their purpose. No longer did the light of a thousand lanterns glow in the great recesses of the ceiling, cast down and broken upon the floor. Yet still, standing tall, lonely shadows in the already dark place, were the thrones, and Cassian found his heart beating a little stronger at the thought that not all their hope was lost.
Out of view, but close beside Rhea, there appeared to be smoldering a small fire. It illuminated softly her features, kindly and worn, but proud, queenly. Cassian saw in her eyes a fiery tyranny, an ageless strength and defiance that could and would lay waste to the nations should it be invoked, and he recognized then why she would have married Kronos. Together, they would have been the most powerful couple in the universe, powerful enough to strike down the protogenoi, and he shivered a little at the thought.
He was glad Hestia was there, just out of view, though she popped her head into their line of sight for a moment when the Iris message had begun, smiling with that suffusing warmth upon Cassian, familiarity in her eyes. He wished he could have spoken to her alone, wished he could have explained to her all that had happened to him in the storage unit of Yavin 4, his encounter with the siren, the cursed knife and the visions that had burst from it. The cursed knife. He'd almost forgotten about it, each fresh danger distracting him from the anxiety that rumbled beneath him. Involuntarily, his hand went to it, sheathed within his belt, pressed against his back, and his fingers grazed gently the hilt. He'd kept it with him since that moment, unable to rid himself of the sense that it had a role yet to play.
But all eyes were fixed upon him now, and he cursed himself for loosing his focus. He looked to Rhea, read in her eyes a sorrow and compassion. He stiffened.
"I'm sorry you have suffered so much," she was saying, and he felt his heart drop. "Your father's- your bloodline's," she corrected, "claim upon you is a steep one. But what your enemies say is true. You are the catalyst, and while it is a burden to bear, it was also motivation enough to get you here. But," and now the titan looked to Reyna, "it also means that the challenges we face will multiply. Let us only hope that we may rise to meet them with enough power to defeat them."
Reyna nodded solemnly, glancing to Cassian out of the corner of her eyes. He read there a respect and a curiosity, not quite so hostile as it had been moments before. Unease sifted into his heart, and he looked to Luke, but the demigod's gaze was lost in studying the room about him. Only the red-headed woman, the one Cassian had learned to be named Rachel Elizabeth Dare, seemed intent on the deities before them. Cassian understood why; she was the Oracle of Delphi, and before her was the titan queen of prophecy. There was a profound awe in Rachel's eyes.
"Have you gotten word from Hades yet?" The question came from Reyna, and Cassian looked with curiosity on the part of Rowan, to Rhea.
The titan queen was shaking her head negatively, and there was a grim hardness to her expression.
"Tartarus has not fully awoken yet, or so it seems. We do not know if he is simply sleeping, biding his time until the forces of the Underworld are spent against him. I will not deceive you," she began, and Reyna nearly blanched at the dread in her tone, "they weaken daily. Our last report was a week ago. Hades looses men in droves, and we're now seeing movements from Nyx. We think she will soon join with Tartarus and Ouranos."
"And Olympus?" Reyna was avoiding the tremble in her voice.
"Olympus is believed to be abandoned, and so we have not been touched by battle overmuch," Rhea paused, then her eyes flickered to attention upon Luke's, intent and burning. Luke stiffened under the gaze. "However, I recommend you act upon the prophecy you've been given." Rhea looked back to Reyna. "Send out teams, puzzle through it, for even I do not know what it entails. It is our only chance to victory, and if we are to truly win, we will need to act quickly."
Reyna nodded, her face stony, and raised a parting hand, sensing the end of the conversation. "Very well," she said. "Farewell."
Rhea nodded in turn, and a fading "good luck" was all that slipped through the collapsing image of the Iris message, muffled by distance, and then the room fell silent. Reyna bit the corner of her lip harshly, pondering over the last words of the titan queen, and then taking in the worn expressions of Cassian and Luke. She opened her mouth to speak, paused, reconsidered her words, and then spoke.
"Get some rest," she told them. "Your journey has been long and hard, and we would only be injuring ourselves if we attempted to act tonight. We've won a victory today, and we must allow time for Zeus and Jason to return to their battlefront."
Luke's relief was undisguised, his features falling a little from their tightened state. He nodded his gratitude.
Reyna smiled sadly. "I'll show you to your quarters, and to Rowan," she added.
- - -
Baze, Chirrut, and Romulus were waiting outside, the three of them leaned up against the wall, in part to rest somewhat from their struggles, but also to keep out of the way of the occasionally heavy traffic of demigods and their weapons racing through the tunnels. Wordlessly, they banded together behind Reyna and Rachel, following the two through the dim Labyrinth, lit only by the torches placed every ten yards or so. Cassian walked beside Baze, Chirrut behind them, and Luke and Romulus even farther back, speaking together in muted tones.
"You've done well."
The words jerked Cassian from his reverie, brought upon by the endless monotony of the stonework, and he started to attention, glancing up and about him for the source of the voice, before his eyes caught hold of Baze's glittering in the torchlight, a gentle smile upon the man's lips. Cassian cocked his head to the side, his mouth twisted in a returned, wry smile as he struggled to understand what Baze had meant.
"You've done well," Baze repeated then, urging forward his opinion against Cassian's disbelief.
"How?" he asked, truly at a loss. As far as he could tell, much of what he'd been doing lately had resulted in some form of ruin and despair, and he had trouble believing the words that had been so kindly directed at him.
"You've led us well," Baze elaborated shortly, looking back to the tunnel before them that seemed to stretch on in darkness for eternity. "I am sorry for doubting you on Jedha. And with Erso's death," he added, exhaling heavily. "You have proven yourself a better man than that."
Cassian opened his mouth to speak before closing it once more, letting the conversation lapse into silence for lack of a better response. They had advanced a few more paces before he responded.
"Thank you."
Baze twisted his lips in an amused smile and nodded, and they continued on in silence, falling into a rhythmic pace, their minds, exhausted from the great stresses of the past few days, taking respite in the monotony till Reyna began to slow, and the tunnel grew somehow brighter. Cassian sought for the source, and his eyes struggled against the darkness a moment till he realized it was coming from a break in the wall, a cavernous opening that lead into a great hall. Reyna seemed to be directing her steps for it, and Cassian sighed gratefully, his heart yearning for a larger space than the cramped tunnels.
Reyna turned the corner, disappearing momentarily until Baze and Cassian moved into the firelight flickering from the center of the large, circular room. Cassian realized it was quite like Morpheus's lodgings on Coruscant, but rather than the dark mystery of the magic that surrounded the god, there was a warmth here that suffused Cassian wholly, and the impression was furthered by the sight of Rowan seated beside Grover upon the edge of the bed nearest the entrance, one of dozens, all facing the firelight in the center. They were, for the most part, empty, the few occupying them unconscious or silently gazing at the ceiling, underslung with fishnet and various curiosities, their expressions worn, listless.
Cassian was happy to see there was still light glimmering deep within Rowan's eyes, though, a laughter playing about her lips. With a tilt to his head, he saw that the ambrosia and the pardon had healed her on a level far deeper than the physical, and the troubled expression in her eyes that had persisted ever since her encounter with Octavian had faded somewhat, receding the way an illness might from the blood. He took a step into the room, following Reyna, and she looked up, sensing the movement.
A smile flashed across her features then and she rose, moving toward the group.
"Fancy seeing y'all here," she laughed, then looked to Reyna. "What'd you discuss?"
Reyna smiled a little. "Not much other than what Luke could report of your adventures over the past few years. Don't worry," she assured at the troubled look in Rowan's expression. "We decide our next steps of action tomorrow. Until then, you need rest." Cassian caught Grover's emphatic nod, shot over Rowan's shoulder toward Reyna. "Follow me to the sleeping quarters."
Rowan nodded, and Cassian noticed the glint of relief that flashed to life in her eyes. She'd never own up to it, but he could sense the exhaustion in her, and her steps were somewhat shuffling when she fell into pace beside Cassian. They placed themselves at the back of the group, behind Romulus and Luke, striding in step together, silent and grim. Rowan smiled at the solidarity between the two of them, the slight paternal glances of Romulus to Luke, the silent reverence with which Luke treated the werewolf, the mutual trust that ran like a current between them.
She glanced to Cassian, unable to avoid the inevitable considerations that slipped into her mind. She remembered her first encounter with the captain; it seemed impossible that it had happened only a week or so ago. As she walked beside him now, she could not imagine the journeys they had undergone without him. As for the darkness looming before them, the comfort of his presence brought a strength to her bones and spirit. They hovered on the edge of a precipice; between them and the great trials ahead, there remained only the night.
Reyna moved quickly, and Rowan had a feeling she, too, sensed the great inevitability before them. Her pace wavered between a reluctant slowness and an eager speed as she swung between an urgent desire to face the future and a desperate need for rest. From the demigods Rowan had seen in the hospital wing, the months they had suffered Ouranos's assault had been agonizing and long. It had been reflected in Grover's eyes as he had rested to speak with her, and even in the eyes of Hebe, goddess of youth, there was age as she moved from one cot to the other, speaking in muted tones to the patients lying there.
They came to a halt at the beginning of a large corridor, something like a great hall, the thin cramped walls of the tunnels they'd been advancing through falling away to this great open space. As the group of them spread out to get a better view of what was before them, the others cleared out of Cassian's and Rowan's lines of sight, revealing suddenly to them that the place was lined with cots. Four rows of them stretched as far as the light of the massive torches above them could reach, and then beyond, the pale white of the sheets glimmering far off in the dark.
Some of them were empty, others full, and of those, most of them seemed to be rising, strapping on various assortments of armor to prepare for what Cassian could only expect was the night guard. From behind them, there came a slow dripping stream of demigods filtering into the place, finding their own cots, falling with thudding exhaustion to the sheets, not even bothering to pull from their straining limbs their armor. It was a bleak sight, and Cassian grimaced at it.
In the early days of the Rebellion, when the small offshoots of it were just beginning, he'd found himself among a group like this, only much smaller. The days had been exhausting, pushing his body and his spirit to the very limit of their power, but the nights were even more-so. Even in exhaustion, the deadening type that sucked from his limbs every ounce of energy, the fear of death haunted him and his fellows. Alone in a bunker far beneath the earth, they feared for the lives of their brothers-in-arms high above, armed with nothing but the scant few weapons the Rebellion could afford to lend them.
He glanced to Reyna, beginning to understand the desperate situation in which she'd found herself and the hope that she was clinging to in the form of Luke's prophecy. With a frown, he found himself appreciating the rest she'd offered them even more. But it was not to last long.
"We'll meet again at six-thirty tomorrow morning and decide what we should do in regards to this new prophecy. If we can reach a conclusion, then we'll begin our preparations. I am sorry we cannot afford you much time to rest, but this is the end of the world as we know it, and our time is limited." Reyna's voice was hard and sharp, and Rowan's brow furrowed in a remorseful understanding. The group of them only nodded in turn.
Luke opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a voice from their right, calling out a greeting, and they turned collectively to see the source. It was Clover, striding toward them, followed by Bohdi and Jyn.
"Glad to see you free, mates," Clover joked, nodding to Reyna in a momentary show of respect, before turning to face them. His eyes glimmered happily when he met Luke's gaze, a thankful grin on the demigod's lips.
Reyna raised her eyebrows, a passing amusement in her features. "Clover will show you to where you will sleep. For tonight, you're our guests, and so you'll stay in the more private rooms we have. I fear you'll have to pair off, though," she said, eyeing them slowly down the line.
Clover shrugged for them. "They don't care," he said, an undertone of laughter to his voice. He spun about and began to march back the way he'd come. "Follow me, mates!" he cried boisterously, and then added as an after thought, "And good night, Reyna!"
Rowan chuckled, the laugh rumbling deep within her, barely contained in Reyna's presence, and she followed after the satyr, a new bounce to her steps as she strolled on beside Cassian. They journeyed along a side tunnel for a time, Cassian keeping an eye on Bohdi, who walked before them beside Jyn.
The pilot still seemed in a daze, occasionally glancing sharply to the left and right at small tunnels they passed but did not enter, though not quite as badly as he had been, and Cassian could only hope that, whatever the situation, Morpheus had put him on the right path to healing. After his own experience with the god, he'd found himself trusting him more and more, and he found it curious that the men and women that he'd come to align himself with over the past few days were, for the most part, the ostracized from earth. He wondered how deeply that was reflected within himself.
His musings were cut off, however, by their arrival at the small cells in which they would sleep for the night. Clover held out his hands in a dramatic gesture of welcome, smiling widely.
"Welcome home, mates," he told them, but they knew the truth, and so did he. After this brief respite, they would soon find themselves thrown out into the darkness of the challenges before them, and with this shadow over their heads, they doubted whether or not sleep would actually come that night.
