Hey, that's a lot of people reading this. Welcome, thanks, why did you guys skip a chapter? I don't know, do what you want. I'd like it if you guys reviewed and did other things. Reviews are nice. Oh, yeah, this is the last of my built-up chapters, so it'll be some time for the next one. Maybe a week?
Disclaimer: If you've read this far, you know this isn't mine. At some point, I guess I'd add in Percy and stuff. Rick Riordan owns all.
Dreams suck. They used to be good, but now? They suck. Do you ever have that sort of dream that starts going good at first, but quickly spirals into something dark? Oh, and the ending leaves you wanting for more so you hope you have another dream that continues the story line but you don't ever have one? Pretty specific, I know, but that's how I felt right now. Watch.
It was the time of the competition. Apollo and I were standing there, shooting at a shooting target. Then clouds gathered over the sun and the sky became an egg yolk. I sent out a lightning bolt to the clouds. Guess who I was in the dream? I'll just tell you, the lightning bolt.
I leapt from my body to the clouds. I wasn't in control, but I could feel the lightning bolt's feelings and 'thoughts.' Yes, it had thoughts. Yes, it was weird, don't ask any more questions.
Once I was in the clouds, I began to spread all over the clouds. I gathered them together, knowing I had to protect my actual body, er, Flak's body. I shot a lightning bolt at Flak, the dream one. Flak grew empowered, and he was shooting rapidly.
What came next, was the funnel of clouds. But, before that, I saw another figure in the sky. The figure was flying above the sun and was looking at the clouds with interest. I decided to take a closer look at the sun, while the figure took a look at me.
The sun wasn't the actual sun. It was a chariot, a flashy chariot, filled with bling. It must have been Apollo's, though the chariot was pretty tacky. There's no need to drape it in golden jewellery o the point of encrusting the wheels with them.
"What are these clouds? They definitely aren't Zeus'..." The figure began to mutter.
I struck the figure with lightning. I didn't want to do it, but I was watching from another dude's point of view. It was like being in Arty's mind, except that I was along for a ride that already happened. The figure simply took the lightning head on. He brushed his clothes a bit and continued to observe the clouds.
"Doesn't seem to be sentient..." The figure took out a notepad and began writing in it with a pen. "An automaton? No, it's a cloud, even Hephaestus wouldn't be able to make this."
Suddenly, I funnelled the clouds together. It was the fennel that saved my life. I made the fennel cover Apollo and I in an effort to stop Apollo's aim. The lightning bolt knew that for it to live, I had to live, lest it be destroyed by the gods. The figure began frantically scribbling in his notepad.
Apollo's arrow stopped in front of Flak. It dissipated and I, the Flak down below, started talking. I watched this with the figure. The figure wryly sighed and wrote a few more words into his notepad before calling Apollo.
"Apollo! We must go!" The figure called. Flak didn't notice the figure's words. He stood, still happy he won. That idiot.
"Just a bit, Hermes." Apollo kept talking to Flak. He began pacing around me, in that trance of getting the prophecy. His chariot became invisible. I looked at the chariot, noticing I could still see it. I simply knew it was invisible. With every snap, the chariot travelled down and with every other snap, it stopped abruptly. It was like if a couple of kids were playing over control of a car.
Apollo finished up and I fainted. He got on his chariot and rode it into the sky to meet Hermes. Hermes was no longer surrounded by clouds, which meant the lightning bolt had already returned to my body. I looked around, realising I was now floating as my dream self.
I thought back to the lightning bolt. It wasn't me, to say the least. It was a different sense of self. I felt scared once it left me. Well, entered me. One and the other. It felt wrong to have another being lay dormant inside me. It was like a wild wolf that decided to stay by my side. I didn't do anything for it, but it had my company. Sometimes, I might even give it food and because of that it would occasionally fight off threats to my life. It was close to me, yet I knew nothing about it. I knew it could kill me if it wanted to, but it didn't. If I had a choice in that matter, I would drive it off.
"What was that about Apollo?" Hermes asked him. Apollo scowled.
"Things are about to go downhill. Maybe during his quest or after, I don't know." Apollo sounded worried. It was unnerving after our competition. He was so flamboyant and full of himself, I thought nothing could get him down.
"I have never heard you so worried Apollo," Hermes stated. I should probably describe how Hermes looked like. He looked like a young man, with blondish-green hair. His clothes looked like a traditional greek's.
Apollo looked to the sun, the actual sun. "I've worried many times like that. You just weren't born yet."
They didn't seem to realise dream me was here unlike Arty. It was probably because this was in the past, so they couldn't react to dream me. If it was like that, then I didn't know how I was here in the dream. This was just confusing. Before I could think on Apollo and his prophecy more, I woke up.
"Your dreams are weird." I opened my eyes ad saw Selena looking over me. She moved away and I jumped off the bed. I looked around the area. I was in a medical facility. Like a hospital. Selena looked at me confusedly.
"You can see dreams? What did you see?" I asked.
"Yes. Dreams are like sleeping thoughts so I can read them." Selena walked to the exit of the room. I followed her, asking questions as we walked.
"And what did you see? Did you see egg yolk sky?" Selena stared at me with even more confusion. She didn't remember the egg yolk sky. The sky composed of mystery clouds and Apollo's chariot.
Selena stopped me. She covered my mouth with her hand. "Egg yolk sky? What do you mean?"
"I was having a competition with Apollo?" I struggled to speak, but I managed to talk. Selena uncovered my mouth.
"What do you mean Apollo?" She looked genuinely confused. I probably looked genuinely confused.
"Guys! Capture the flag, come quick!" I heard a voice down the hall. Selena grabbed my hand and started to run. I ran with her, barely keeping up. She grabbed both our bags on the way out.
We ran up stairs, across the town square, up and down several other stairs, across alleyways and even through holes in walls. I tried to talk to Selena more, she could read my soul, she had to believe me. Despite that, every person we passed didn't seem to know about the egg yolk sky. It covered the whole city, they had to know about it. Yet nobody looked shocked or confused. That lasted all the way until we reached the top of a building.
The building top had no railings and instead had barricades. It was the roof of a three-story building and was left unfinished, but it somehow looked like it had gone through several battles. There was even a sniper tower.
The rooftop had tables filled with equipment and I could see many people grabbing equipment and putting on armour. Some of them were done and ran down the stairs. They looked like they were preparing for war or something similar.
"We made it in time. Suit up." Selena ran to a table filled with equipment and picked out two maces. She grabbed a bow and tossed me it. She also decided to toss me my bag at the same time, so I fell over.
Selena began to put on various bits of armour, but never a full suit. "What event is this? Is this capture the flag?"
"Yes. I know you're tired from archery training, but you can at least shoot at some people." She grabbed a quiver and tossed in several arrows. She handed me the quiver. I put the quiver on my hip and shouldered my bow.
"Shoot? Are we playing capture the flag, but with actual weapons?" I asked again. She grabbed my shoulder and headed towards the stairs.
"And superpowers. Come on, hurry up!" At that moment, someone decided to interrupt us.
"Actually Selly, I've decided Flak's gonna stay up here with me," Galin interrupted. Somehow he had managed to get up the sniper tower with a wheelchair. Selena scowled and rushed down to join the other people.
"What's happening?" I decided to leave my conversation with Selena to another time. We had to talk about it at some point, but not now.
"Battle. We're reenacting an actual fight, so that when we do fight for real, we're prepared." I started climbing up the sniper tower, with my bow shouldered and my quiver on my hip. I only had a dozen or so arrows in it.
I climbed up to the top of the sniper tower and I began to look out. "So, how is this capture the flag?"
Galin produced a flag from his chair. "The opposing force just needs to reach my position."
I began to wonder how that would be hard. Nobody was protecting the place. Except for me. Oh no. I began to frantically look for my side. People already went to battle. The battlefield seemed to be full of abandoned buildings. There were bridges connecting buildings and alleyways that interwove between them. I could even see people battling in the swirly bit of a car park.
"Am I alone in guarding you?" I began looking for targets to shoot at. I spotted several people crossing bridges that seemed close to ours, so I began aiming at the bridges.
"Yeah. But you're good at shooting, so we should be fine. Also, don't shoot the bridges." I lowered my bow. He was the leader in this situation.
"What happens if we lose?"
"Cull makes us do chores." Galin shrugged. "But, whatever, you know?"
I sighed. "First day at Haven, and I'm already doing chores."
"Yep. I can't really fight, except for shooting with a gun, but that's an illegal weapon." I raised an eyebrow until Galin pulled out a gun. A revolver even.
"You have guns. Of course you do, what would I expect?"
"Wanna know this one's history?" Galin began to wave his revolver around.
I nodded. "Seems cool," I said fast as I shot a person in the head. He had a helmet on, it was okay. Except that he fell off a bridge, I hoped he was fine.
"Its name is Skopeftis. Lame name, I know. But, it has saved my life on many occasions." Galin smiled, looking forlornly at it. He seemed to have many good memories with Skopeftis.
"How so?" I looked towards Galin, interested.
"I went outside the city once. Found a monster."
"Which one?" I asked. I saw a person trying to cross to our building from a bridge. I tried to shoot an arrow at them, but I ran out. I had to climb down the ladder and get some more arrows. I decided to bring my bag up too.
"The one you killed. Was it blind in one eye?" I thought back to when I killed it. I guess I saw one eye pop out. I climbed back up and answered him.
"I guess? I wasn't paying attention." I shot a girl who was climbing up the side of the building. How she managed to do that? I don't know. Is there a god of spiders in greek mythology? God of insects maybe?
"Whatever. Anyway, I was alone. I never used weapons, since, you know." Galin gestured to his legs. "I couldn't even use bows, but I had Skopeftis with me. My little sister had snuck Skopeftis into my wheelchair."
Galin pointed to a compartment in the chair. It was packed together with all the machinery in it. I never did take a close look at the wheelchair. It was tough and rigid. You would expect a seat, two big wheels, handles at the back and perhaps pedals to rest the feet at. Galin had all those, but underneath the seat was complex machinery that was connected to the wheels. I couldn't make sense of any of them even if I tried to evaluate it. I just knew there was a compartment Galin could reach.
"You knocked off a tusk right?" Galin asked. I nodded. I fished out the tusk from my bag and showed it to him.
Galin evaluated the tusk. He looked at it wistfully and began to nod his head. He poked it a few times as if checking its hardness. He put the sharp end to his mouth and tried to blow it as if he was blowing a horn. He frowned when the tusk did nothing.
"We should hollow it out. If we hollow it out, anybody can use it just by blowing it, not just the children of Zeus."
"How do you know that?"
Galin elaborated, "Call it one of Hephaestus' gifts. Our evaluation isn't just figuring out what it does, it also leads us to new ideas. Athena Complex has it too."
It took me a while to offer the tusk. I didn't have a reason to give the tusk away, but I also didn't have a reason to keep it. "Do you want the tusk?"
"Oh, I can have it?" Galin excitedly asked. He gripped the tusk with newfound joy.
"Sure. I don't have much use for it anyway. Better to hand it over to someone who can do something with it." I guess I found my reason.
Galin muttered to himself. He seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough. "I'm a genius. Ramona'll be so happy!"
Galin must've thought of something else to make with the tusk for Ramona. I smiled. "The enemy's getting closer. By the way, who is your little sister? She must be pretty talented to make a revolver."
Galin grinned. Anyone could see he loved his sister dearly. "Ramona."
I went straight back into shooting. My heart felt lighter after hearing that, as if the burdens I was carrying disappeared. It was always nice to see people like Galin around. I kept shooting and shooting, but the people trying to run into the building seemed to be endless. People aren't dropping off the battlefield since nobody is dying, but some must have taken injuries serious enough they had to leave. Hopefully not Selena, I needed to talk to her.
"Galin. The enemy's getting awfully close." Galin closed his eyes in thought.
"I see that. Flak, it might be a good idea to start shooting lightning now." I didn't know how to shoot lightning. I contemplated trying to make an excuse.
"I don't know how to."
"Well, it's your first day, can't complain. If it's like that then I hope Dahlia gets the flag soon. If Dahlia gets the flag, run to her side and help protect her." Dahlia. I felt like I heard her name at lunch and that I might have seen her, but I wasn't sure.
"What does she look like and who is she?"
"Dark skin, dyed blue hair. Daughter of Poseidon, you'll recognise her by the flag she'll be carrying." Poseidon's daughter. I assumed that meant she could control water.
"Got it." I climbed down the ladder and began to prepare for my incursion. I was only beginning to grab a few more arrows before Galin yelled at me.
"Flak!" I looked up and noticed Galin was pointing towards my left. I dodged to my right and I saw a guy who tried to hit me with his sword.
"That's Harry Griar! He's a son of Ares, be careful!" Galin shouted. I took a close look at Harry. He looked our age, maybe a little older like Galin. Unlike Galin, he was entirely serious. He was clearly experienced in battle. He held his sword in front of him, ready to strike. He didn't have a shield, but he did have armour.
I prepared to shoot at him with my bow. I tried to call on the powers of lightning, but I couldn't. I ignored my failure and began firing. Harry weaved in between my shots, which I considered really fast. He ran close to me, despite my best efforts, and slashed at me with his sword. Remember, I didn't actually suit up yet. So, it hurt.
Harry stepped back, waiting to see if I was going to continue fighting. The wound was on my left shoulder and I desperately needed it for shooting a bow. I was practically useless now. My bow clattered onto the floor. Harry kept observing me however, as if I had a secret trick up my sleeve. He was cautious, and silent. I could see he was a loner, maybe I could use that? Anything to lure him away.
"Flak, just extend the arrow!" Galin shouted again. I took out an arrow, trying to follow Galin's command. Harry saw what I was doing and rushed me. I shook the arrow hard, hoping it would trigger something.
I held the arrow up in front of me, hoping it would block Harry's strike. He would lightly slice my chest with his sword, but that would force me to leave the battle. I hoped that however it happened that the arrow would extend. Extend into something useful like a lance or something.
I felt a weight in my arms. Not just Harry's strike, but something else. I opened my eyes and realised it was a lance. I didn't know why I was so happy that it extended into a lance. Lances felt right to me. After my horrible try with the sword, I felt like lances were right up my alley.
Harry retreated quick, seeing the weapon I now had. He could clearly see this was my first time using a lance, I didn't see why he rushed me. I raised the lance with my right hand, the one that wasn't injured. I didn't want to use my left hand, since my left shoulder hurt. Harry noticed my predicament, and was about to climb up the ladder before I thrust the spear before him.
He slashed my lance away and dove in for another light cut. I stepped back and blocked the attack. He pushed hard and, since I was holding the lance with one hand, nearly launched the lance away. The lance was driven into the ground. I grabbed the part of the lance closer to the edge and tried to slash at him. He parried and nearly ran me through.
"Dead." Harry poked my stomach with his sword. He began to climb up the ladder.
"It's okay Flak! It's your first day anyway!" Galin comforted me from the sniper tower. Harry grabbed the flag and went down the ladder quick. He left down the stairs, presumably to the enemy base. I sighed and sat down.
It didn't take long for a horn to sound. Harry somehow managed to sneak over to the other side without alerting any of us. Well, maybe he did, but we certainly didn't stop him. Galin's wheelchair began to lower from the sky unexpectedly. I looked up and realised Galin's wheelchair was connected to a rope tied to the top of the sniper tower.
"How does that work?"
"Pulley. The other end has a big rock that's slightly lighter than me and my wheelchair. I can go down whenever I want, but I can't get up." I nodded. It made sense. If he wanted to go up someone else only has to pull the other end.
"By the way, can you carry me down the stairs? I'll ask someone else to bring the wheelchair," Galin asked me. I pointed to my left shoulder.
"Right. So, I'm stuck here until you get help." Galin wryly smiled. He reached into his chair and pulled out several tools. He probably wanted to work on the tusk for Ramona.
"We could try to move down the stairs?" I dumbly suggested. Galin slowly returned his tools and turned to look at me. I shrugged.
"Keep a good grip on the wheelchair."
"That was not fun." Galin let out a big breath he had been holding in after we reached the end of the stairs.
"I liked it," I muttered. Galin gave me a stare that seemed to imply that if I suggested we do it again, he would shoot me. I didn't want to be shot so I silently drove him to the medical ward. The Apollo Complex.
Galin told me this as I drove him to the Apollo Complex. Each complex was home to different children of the gods. For example, Apollo Complex had children of Apollo. That meant I would live in the Zeus Complex with Cull. There were 12 complexes in all, though there were 15 shrines. The ten Olympians who didn't swear off fornication, the ones that did being Arty, Athena, Hera and Hestia, each had a complex. Plus Athena somehow, don't ask me how the children of Athena came to be, maybe they just appeared out of nowhere. Anyway, the other 2 complexes were Hades and some minor gods, Psyche being one of them. The shrines were the same as the complexes, having every Olympian though, a generic shrine and one for Hades. Apparently Cull had to convince everyone for the Hades shrine, since nobody wanted a funeral shrine in their city.
"How many things is Apollo god of?" I had to ask. Maybe he picked up the things left over by the other gods.
"I don't know. There's the sun, archery, healing, diseases, poetry..." Galin began to trail off.
"Prophecies?" I suggested.
"Yeah, that too. That should be all of Apollo's main things." I promised myself earlier that once the hectic things were over, I'd begin thinking back on everything.
Whenever I tried to think of events that happened today, I always began with the prophecy Apollo mentioned and the beast. He told me that the prophecy would get to me sooner or later, and in the dream, Apollo told Hermes that things were about to get hectic. That had to be bad, since it was by Apollo's standards, which had to be high.
We reached the medical ward of the Apollo Complex. It was the entire ground floor and the basement. There were a lot of people in Epineio, and Apollo Complex was the only complex that knew how to heal with magic. We didn't want to waste ambrosia after all. Galin pointed to an empty chair and I wheeled him there. I sat in the chair until a guy walked to me and began healing my shoulder.
"Wanna get a prophecy while you get that treated?" The guy asked. He looked prepared to charge me for both, so I refused. Besides, I was pretty scared to learn of the prophecy.
And that was the entire day over with. We ate dinner immediately after and said some prayers. Or at least the ones who prayed to the greek gods, obviously some of us had different religions. I was agnostic, so I prayed whenever I felt like it, if I felt like praying at all. I don't know is basically my religion. It was nice seeing that everybody was allowed to have their own religion even if mine was somewhere in between atheism and normal religion.
Our side, Hephaestus, Zeus, Minor, Poseidon and Athena Complex, had to clean the dishes. The dishes were magically transported to a kitchen where the food was made. Though, I wasn't sure if the kitchen had everything it needed to make all the foods. I didn't see a single pizza oven there. I tried to talk to Selena while we were washing dishes, but she ignored me. Instead, I got to speak with Dahlia. She was cool, and chill with me getting destroyed by Harry. I tried to get her to use her water powers to clean all the dishes but she said it would be unfair to all the other complexes.
Cull introduced me to Zeus Complex. For some reason we had a lot of siblings, I don't know why. My room was 532. I was surprised to learn that the rooms were soundproof. I guess some extra work were done in the complexes so no one would be bothered while they slept. There were also alarms and telephones in the rooms too, not only that, there were showers. I decided a nice hot shower was in order.
It wasn't hot. It was cold. Maybe the Poseidon kids were being mean today, because they lost. Maybe they forgot they were fighting together with Zeus Complex. I wasn't angry, I had a lot of thinking to do in the shower instead.
Today was insane. I learned Zeus was my dad. I killed a big boar with the lightning powers passed down to me. Cull and Franz picked Selena and I up from the forest and introduced me to my new home, Epineio. I had an archery competition with Apollo and he told me of a prophecy and of a beast. He told me to not let the beast escape again. I wondered if he was referring to the lightning bolt inside me or some other beast. I was scared of the prophecy, but I knew I needed to hear it.
"Flak?" I heard a voice call out from the door. I was a little slow in finishing up and that was evident in the caller's face. Selena looked slightly miffed.
"Selena? What are you doing here?" I asked, letting her in. She came in and sat on my chair. I didn't even realise I had my own chair. And with a table to boot. A complete set.
"I believe you," Selena abruptly told me. I looked at her with shock. I closed the door and locked it. Selena looked scared for a second, and I contemplated unlocking it to make her feel comfortable. I did.
"You believe the egg yolk sky?" I asked, kind of excited. Selena looked troubled, but nodded.
"I read your soul and souls don't lie. I know that to be a fact, my mother told me so." Selena closed her eyes as if consulting someone. I began to feel a presence around her. A god's presence.
"Is Psyche here?" Selena looked at me as if I could suddenly see souls too.
"No, but a piece of her is," Selena began to explain, "Earlier today, I went to the shrine. I asked my mother for help."
Selena looked as if she expected me to ask her about that. I didn't know why she did, but I asked anyway. "How does that work?"
"Psyche is less god and more soul. Eros, her husband, made her immortal, but there was a price." I raised an eyebrow at that. Mortals can become immortal? Did that I could make my mom immortal? It would come with a price however, and I think I could guess it.
"Did she lose herself? Her sense of identity?" Selena looked perturbed at the idea.
"No, of course not. Because she was already an adult when he decided to turn her immortal, she had to sacrifice something. I'm not sure as to what it was, but it represented her human state."
"So, she is also a soul?" Selena thought over my question a bit.
She answered vaguely, "Gods are different from humans. Now, to make explaining this easier, have you wondered how she is the god of the soul?"
"She was a philosopher before she became a god?" I guessed based on Dionysus. He was also a demigod, but he became a god. As a demigod he ruled over wine, madness and parties, and that became what he ruled over as a god.
"No, she gained the favour of Hades. Do you know her final task?" I didn't even know Psyche did tasks. Was she like Hercules?
"Yep," I lied. I only realised Selena could still read my soul when she sighed.
"She had to go to the Underworld. Her task was to procure Persephone's beauty ointment. She managed to get around Cerberus, and had to convince Persephone for it. Persephone, seeing how pitiful my mother was, gave her the beauty ointment. Once she reached daylight, she started to wonder how powerful the beauty ointment would be."
"If even Aphrodite wanted it, then it had to be good. So, Psyche tried to open it, what next?" I could fill in the next part of the story. I decided to sit on my bed.
"She found a stygian dream awaiting her. Eros had to save her and convince the rest of the gods. Zeus directed him to feed her nectar and ambrosia, the godly version, to make her immortal in exchange for Eros' services."
"Persephone must've felt bad right?" Even I could think that. I wanted to ask about the stygian dream, but I felt now wasn't the time. It was probably a sleeping beauty thing.
Selena continued, "Yes, to put it simply. She asked Hades to grant Psyche power, so that she would never feel the pain of the stygian dream ever again. Hades granted my mother the power of the soul, and that is why my mother is like that."
"Alright. So, you asked your mom for help, and she sent down a soul that contained a piece of her." I was getting anxious over Apollo's prophecy. I wanted to talk about it fast.
"Yes. She assured me that souls couldn't lie. No matter what, souls cannot lie, especially alive ones. She decided to come along with me, just in case." I wish Zeus answered me when I called for him. I did earlier, in his own shrine accompanied by Cull, but nothing happened. I heard Cull was one of Zeus' favorite children, so I had asked him for help.
"So, you already know the full story right?"
"Not the dream. My mother needs to know the dream to form her conclusion." Selena looked at me expectantly. I grew nervous at that. It was weird seeing a girl who expected so much of me, that expectation being explaining a reasonable explanation of my dreams.
"The dream..." I trailed off. I didn't know how best to explain it. I tried my best to explain it, but I didn't tell Selena about the lightning bolt. I didn't tell her that I was in the lightning bolt and that the lightning bolt was separate from me. That the lightning bolt was its own being. It freaked me out, I didn't want anyone else knowing about it.
"Is there something you aren't telling me Flak?" Selena asked. "My mother is one last step to the conclusion."
"No. That's it. Just Hermes and Apollo talking." I really didn't want Selena to read my soul, or for her mother to. I hoped Selena wasn't able to, even though I knew she could.
"You are." Selena tried to smile in an effort to get me to say it. "I won't ask about it, since you clearly want it hidden."
"You can't read it?" She nodded. She seemed a little happy when she nodded like that.
"I can't read souls that want to keep their thoughts an absolute secret. If you want to keep it a secret, one where you do not want to tell anyone, I cannot read it." I started smiling a little bit. Suddenly, both of us were smiling wryly.
"Thanks. So, what's the conclusion?" I waited expectantly at her.
"The storm clouds you created are not of greek origin. Maybe something went wrong with your birth. My mother thinks that it is because your mother might be a demigod from another religion."
"Other gods exist?" I tried to wrap my head around that. Okay, greek gods exist and then other gods also. So, do they share the world and their things, or do they fight over it? There were lots of questions about everything but I didn't think we had enough time to unpack all of that, so I didn't ask.
"Yes. My mother thinks that it might be because your mother is a demigod from a lightning god, like Thor. I think that you're a roman demigod, instead of a greek one. That would mean you're the son of Jupiter instead of Zeus."
"What's the difference between Zeus and Jupiter? They're the same god, right?"
"Romans and greeks are inherently different people. They're like facets of the same being. Do you remember your mom and her scary mood swings?" Selena looked as if she wanted to smack herself for saying that. Of course I did.
"Yep. One moment she's the kindest person in the world and the next she could be facing down at you like a bull. It's like that?" I tried to imagine Arty as a cheerful girl, kind of like a girl Apollo. It didn't fit her at all.
"Yes, I think. It would explain why I wasn't able to see your dream. That would mean the Sleight hiding the dream was roman instead of greek," Selena surmised.
"Sleight? Like the magician trick?" I thought to the iconic card magic trick where the magician would grab the volunteer's card out of nowhere.
"It is a magician's trick. It obscures our activities and all involved."
"How does that work?" Was it like some sort of mist? Maybe it was a sort of fog that obscured one's view and left one feeling like nothing had happened? A glamour perhaps?
"Watch this." Selena raised her hand. I expected to forget she was raising her hand, but a certain object appeared. The object was lustrous, perfect in appearance. I almost jumped at it. There it was again. The golden apple.
"Is your favorite food really that good?" I clenched my bedsheets in an effort to resist. I wanted to relearn its flavour, its texture and the good feeling from back then. My mind was entirely filled with it, again.
"Yes. Can you, can you hand it over?" I began to reach for it. Selena looked at me weirdly and dispelled the sleight. The golden apple disappeared.
"It's not real. You can't eat it." Selena explained the obvious. I sighed.
"Sorry, sorry. Just, don't do that again." I laid on my bed. Selena seemed to pity me a little.
"Well, I had to have my mother help in creating this sleight. You'd only ever fall for a sleight of another religion's god."
"Well, that's good. I won't see it again." I began to mutter. "Not again."
"That means you definitely aren't greek. We'll have to contact the others."
"Or maybe we could listen to that prophecy first? Apollo directed it to me, so that has to be something." I suggested. Selena stood up and walked to the door.
"Then we should visit our Oracle. It's only a short walk to Apollo Complex. We can make it before curfew." I stood up. Selena opened the door and I followed her.
"So I wasn't your grand-uncle?"
"Shut up."