"For the ruinous fault of Gluttony, so are these sad souls broken by the rain and the mud." – Virgil
Tessa and Dean got back on the road. Dean asked her if she could tell him what the order of the circles was, but Tessa said that that would count as helping. Dean understood and didn't ask again. He spent the rest of the way trying to remember the order.
Dean felt Tessa stop and looked up from his hands, he was counting the circles and trying to make sense of the order. He was standing in the middle of a grand hall. Looking around, he felt the same shiver run down his spine just like when he first met Aphrodite. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what the next challenge was going to be.
A few feet ahead of them was an empty table, and a woman sitting at the head of it. Tessa told Dean that the woman was Adephagia, the Goddess of Gluttony, and that she was waiting for him. Dean wanted to ask Tessa what he could expect, but he knew the reaper couldn't tell him.
Walking up to the table, Adephagia signaled for him to take a seat at the only other chair there. Dean sat down and waited for something to happen. With a snap of her fingers, suddenly the empty table was filled with all sorts of food and beverages.
Dean's eyes widen. Seeing all that food was something he never expected, and he almost fell for it. But realization hit him before he could do anything stupid. Grabbing a simple cheeseburger and a beer to wash it down with, Dean ate and stood up, walking away from the table and back to Tessa's side.
Again, Tessa smiled, and Dean knew he had done the right thing. He turned back to Adephagia and saw that all the food was gone. She told him that he had passed the challenge by showing temperance and granted him passage to the next circle. Bowing her head, she disappeared.
Tessa touched his arm and they started walking again. Dean was starting to worry about the rest of the circles. So far, they had been simple enough, appealing to his sex drive and his stomach. But what was worrying him was when or if they went down a different path, such as anger or violence. He knew those would be harder to beat.
Taking a deep breath, Dean tried to focus on what that was all for. The fate of all the souls in the world. He had to find a way to keep centered and not allow himself to falter on his mission. He had to stay focused and think of one thing that would help him.
Looking ahead, he saw the sinuous road and wondered how much longer it was going to take to get to the next circle. Tessa wasn't very talkative, so Dean spent the time he had thinking of all the things that could happen in each circle.
Hopefully, it would help him beat them. But then again, it may not. Who knew?