Chapter Twelve

Heritage

These connections are keynote. Namely because of what these connections signify. One product of these divine connections is Venus. When Uranus was felled, his essence contaminated the ocean, and mingled with the essence of Terra, conceiving Venus. In all technicality, Venus may be considered a titan, being born of Uranus and Terra. Thus, bearing both her father's spiritual qualities, and her mother's physical nature, she embodies the dual nature of love, that of supreme emotion and visceral physicality.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ Anton Ravenson, Codex Deorum Essay One⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

I laid motionless on the cot for some time.

The tears had stopped a while ago, but I still felt heavy in my heart. It was near noon, and the sun was full bright through the slitted windows, its beams cutting into the room like gleaming shears.

Footsteps clattered on the stone floor of the hospital, and three people came walking into the room, Ethan, Hazel, and Reyna.

Reyna's purple cape billowed menacingly as she strode into the room, head high, black hair cascading onto her shoulders. Hazel and Ethan, dressed in their camp t-shirts and jeans, followed quickly behind her, their feet shuffling along the ground as they went.

"Have the medics done anything for his hand?" Reyna asked of her companions. Ethan responded with a quick nod and informed her that they had bound it with unicorn horn shavings for a while, but it had done nothing.

When they reached my cot, Ethan inspected my hand, grimacing as he looked it up and down.

"You doing okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, you asked me this last night." I responded with a laugh.

"I know, I was just making su—"

"Excuse me," Reyna cut in, "But we have many things to discuss. Many important things."

Hazel spoke next.

"Ethan told us about what you said to him last night, and Reyna thinks that it could prove some of Anton Ravenson's theories in Codex Deorum."

"The book she gave me?"

"Yeah, have you been reading it?"

"I haven't got much of a chance to because of the games."

Reyna extracted the book from a bag at her side, slung over her shoulders and across her chest.

"Sorry, I had forgot to get it back to you earlier, you left it at the arena when you went out to fight. And by the way, you did very well."

"Thanks."

"Anyway," she continued, "In the book, especially in the first and second essays, Anton focuses on his Dual Energy Postulate, his idea that there are two main sources of divine power, a male, and female source, Terra, and Uranus. What you told Ethan about may provide evidence for the theory's credibility."

"There's something else, Reyna." I said quickly, my thoughts racing inside my head.

"Yes?"

"The two colors of light that I saw were blue and green. There were streams of it connected to the other campers, but only blue, and just one for each of them. I had two, both of them, blue and green."

Reyna furrowed her eyebrows, their dark outlines pressing inwards. I looked at the book again, the gold and silver etchings in the leather binding twisting their way into the two circles. Strange. The two powers, but the wrong colors. Had no one before me seen the blue and green energy lines? Was I mad, and saying things that seemed to prove one thing, while saying another?

"You said blue and green?" Reyna inquired.

"Yes."

"Did you find you could do anything with these energy streams?"

"I think so, my abilities were strengthened when I directly touched the blue line. And…"

"Did you touch the green line at all?"

"I—I…" I stuttered, as I realized partway what had happened. My eyes drifted from Reyna, and slowly made their way down my shoulder and down to my hand. My black, withered, ugly hand. It dawned on me, that the moment I had touched the green line, I had experienced pain. Raw physical pain. Pain from touching it. That must have been when my hand had shriveled up and blackened.

Reyna prodded further.

"Yeah I did."

"Did anything happen when you touched it?"

"It was like a hot poker, like an awful burning sensation, and then…"

I slowly lifted up my hand and they all shuddered. The skin was pulled close to the bone, and was colored a dark, scorched black, like it had been mummified.

Reyna nodded. "I see. I think that you may have tried to tap into Terra's energy, if indeed Anton's theory is correct. I think he writes that genetics and physical forms determine the type of power one is able to wield."

"And I tried to touch the wrong one?"

"Well there's a question to be asked there. If every other demigod you saw only had a blue energy, why did you have both? Did your genetics determine that you could touch both? Are you able to touch both, but only able to handle one? There are many questions. I don't think we can answer them just yet. We need more info on your birth."

I surge of excitement ran through me. My birth, my origin. Who I was.

"How do we find who my parents are? Ethan, how did you find out your mom was Minerva?"

Ethan looked sideways at Hazel and Reyna, and then responded.

"I went to the temple of Phoebus Apollo, and they held a divine consultation. That's when she appeared to me."

"So I can do that, just go to the temple and find out?"

The three looked at each other.

"Unfortunately no," Reyna said. "Our last oracle was… umm. Killed in the Giant War. As a matter of fact, he was one of the leading factors that got us into it."

"Oh… Is there any other method?"

"At the Greek camp, their parents will send a symbol over their heads to let people know."

"They don't do that here?"

"Nope, although I have no idea why."

"Could I try going to the temple anyway? I mean if the god could help Ethan, I don't think he needs a priest to do it."

I knew I was reaching because they had obviously had a priest for a reason. But I was suddenly ecstatic with the idea of maybe finding out who I was.

"I don't think—" Reyna began, but Ethan cut her off.

"Let him try. My mom appeared for me, and I think if I ask for her wisdom and guidance, I might figure out a way. And it would be good anyway, because it would give him time to pray to his own parent, and at the temple that's got to mean something. Right? It's worth a shot."

"Ethan's right, I think it's a good idea." Hazel agreed.

"Alright, tonight at twilight, that will be a good time to do it. You an Ethan should go alone; other companions may be too many for a personal appearance." Reyna said.

Twilight fell, blanketing the world in a soft darkness. Stars rose above the horizon, countless suns, countless worlds, all empty, lonely, yet in the sky they were a family, united in their solitude. Silent guardians, sentinels of knowledge. The witnesses of all things.