Chapter Eight

Apocalypsis

Divine politics, despite the fickleness of its founders, has remained relatively unchanged since it was first set in place. However, there is one subject that has escaped the notice of deitorial laws since the beginning. This is the subject of mortals who the divine beings have transformed into gods.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Anton Ravenson, Codex Deorum pp. 10⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

My eyes snapped open.

Ethan was holding my head, with the rest of my body sprawled over the stone floor of the room.

"He's awake!" Ethan exclaimed. I sat up, my head aching, the pain searing at the back of my skull and close to the temples.

I sat up, rubbed my head, and looked around. The entire room was staring at me. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks, and I looked downwards, attempting to shut out the crowd. Ethan placed his hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently. "Are you okay? You were⎯⎯⎯ You were sort of thrashing on the ground, so I had to keep your head still."

"How long was I⎯⎯⎯"

"Only around thirty seconds. You were mumbling the entire time." He stopped for a moment, and I thought I saw a look of realization cross his face.

"What⎯⎯⎯ you just realized something, what was it?" I blurted. He looked slightly taken aback by my outburst but continued anyway.

"Have you, been experiencing… Strange dreams?"

I fumbled for an answer, debating on whether I should tell him. I nodded silently, a physical affirmation to end the internal conflict.

"We must see Reyna immediately then."

"I'm meeting her at 1:00 already."

"Well, we can start a little early then, this can't wait."

"No, it's fi⎯⎯⎯"

"Where did she say to meet her?" He interjected. I racked my brain, trying to remember what the note had said.

"I don't think she mentioned a place, just the time."

Ethan thought for a minute, and during that time, to my relief, the room had mostly gone back to eating, my sensational fit now over, they could return to their conversations.

"I think I know where she might be." Ethan cut in; contemplation apparently finished.

"She skipped lunch today, and usually the only time she skips is when she's stewing something over in her mind." He paused for a moment. "Yeah, I guarantee you she's most likely in the Garden of Bacchus, her favorite place."

"Where's that?"

"Over in the town."

"San Francisco?" I asked, puzzled. Ethan laughed and shook his head.

"No, I'm talking about New Rome, the city that the camp's attached to. I think you went there for the senate hearing. You probably ran into Terminus at the border, where he asks everyone for their weapons."

"Oh yeah, I do remember the Terminus part. He hates me." I grimaced.

"He hates everybody really, except for Julia, his assistant, that little girl with the weapons tray." Ethan responded with a grin.

I laughed and tried to stand up. My legs shook a little bit, but Ethan helped me the rest of the way. Taking my shoulder, he supported me as we walked out of the room.

As it turned out, Ethan was correct in assuming that Reyna was in the Garden of Bacchus. As we entered the garden, we passed through a marble arch, chiseled with ornate carvings of fauns, dryads, and crowds of people, both men and women. There were vines everywhere. Not just in the carvings but in the physical garden itself; it was almost overgrown, but in a beautiful way that seemed almost intentional. Wherever the vines failed to touch, flowers or small trees sprung up lightly from the earth. We walked for a bit until we came to what looked to be the center of the garden. In the very heart of it was a brilliant white fountain, flowing with crystal clear water.

We found Reyna there, sitting next to the fountain, reading a book. As we neared, her gaze ascended to meet us.

"You're early." She didn't seem angry, quite the opposite in fact.

Ethan spoke before I could even form a response in my mind.

"Reyna, this is urgent. He's been seeing visions, I mean not just at night, he full on collapsed while we were in the dining hall."

Reyna's eyes widened. She nodded.

"Right then, this should fit precisely into what I asked Jason here for."

I interjected myself here. "You said that you had something important to tell me? About what I showed you?"

She nodded and continued. Ethan made as if to leave, but Reyna gestured for him to take a seat as well.

"There have been great stirrings in the tenuous relationship between gods and mortals. No single person nor god is to be blamed; it has been compiling over centuries and is the result of bad decisions on both ends of the scale. Gods have had affairs with mortals since time immemorial, and there has been no change to that fact. Now, there are some mortals who believe that the gods' insatiable lust has gone too far and has made them a danger to mankind. Godly politics is a tricky subject, especially concerning marriage. Jealousy has raged rampant through Olympus and has sparked many wars for over thousands of years. These people believe that the gods have had too much freedom and must be brought down."

Ethan's jaw dropped, and I heard an audible gasp escape his lips.

"Bring down the gods?" he whispered, seemingly frightened by the thought.

"Indeed, they claim that it has been the pattern for all time. The titan Saturn brought down his father Uranus, the gods slew the titans, and now it is the demigods' turn to entomb their parents. Now for that group of demigods there exists a group of gods known as the judges of the underworld, and a steadily growing group of minor gods to support them, who believe also that the greater gods have had too much liberty among mortals. But perhaps in greater contrast, they also believe that the only way to stop this dilemma is by untruly judging any demigods that have died, and sending them to the fields of punishment, or the fields of Asphodel when they would have been kings and queens ruling in Elysium. They have been suspending fair judgment for years now, and yet the gods have not noticed that their children are suffering."

"Oh, my gods." Ethan breathed.

I didn't know if I could breathe. There was silence for a while. After a few minutes, I broke it.

"Reyna, if it has been going on for years, why has no one heard about it?"

"That's another reason I invited you." She held up the book she had been reading. "I had found it in the library a few days before you arrived. I didn't know if what I was reading was true because of how ridiculous it had sounded, but when you came along, I knew we had to do something." She paused for a moment. "Something tells me you are going to be a bigger part of this than you realize Jason. These visions you've been seeing point to you as one of our greatest assets during this time. The fate of this conflict might very well rest on your decisions."

"What do you mean?"

"Here, take the book, it might help explain a few things." She handed it to me, the leather book weighing heavily in my hands. The cover read "Codex Deorum, Anton Ravenson."

"What do the words mean?" I asked.

She looked at me for a moment, her dark eyes surveying me with an expression simultaneously of extreme curiosity and intense pity. It was a strange look, but one full of profound affectation. After a minute she responded, her voice solemn and quiet.

"It means Codex of the Gods."