"Lord Hermes," Drew gasped, bowing quickly while Lea turned to him with an impassive face.
"Drew," he nodded, eyes not leaving Lea. "Leaneíras."
"Where's my brother," she asked. "What incident?"
"Something that you should find out soon enough," he tells her. "But I have a favor to ask of you."
Lea's features curled in disgust. "I don't do favors."
"Drew did your french work."
"And I'm helping her get on good terms with Ethan because the plot got lost somewhere and somehow the world is convinced that we're friends."
"I thought she was keeping her siblings off your back."
Lea snorted. "I can deal with a few mean comments. Mama didn't raise no bitch."
"You will fit in wonderfully with the rest of our family," he said sincerely.
"I never thought I'd be in a family that has more people than a small country."
"Is everything an argument with you," he snickered. Lea shrugged. "Bet you regret focusing on this branding now, huh? Do you still think this is a blessing?"
He smiled slyly. "Hm. No, but Khaos and Eros tend to give the toughest battles to their strongest soldiers."
Lea rolled her eyes.
"I'm confused," Drew broke in. Lea blinked, forgetting just for a moment that she had been there. The other girl furrowed her brow as she looked between the two. "You are flirting, right? I'm not reading this wrong."
"As much as I try, she does not seem to notice," the god stated, placing a hand to his forehead. "Is this the fate of Wily Hermês?"
Lea grimaced, "Please never call yourself that again." She then turned to Drew. "Come on. We need to go to your little camp."
"What about my favor," the god said at the same moment that Drew repeated the aforementioned question.
"I don't do favors," Lea repeated.
"I'm willing to pay for service," he said.
Lea's face darkened quickly, and the greens of her eyes started to glow ominous. Unnoticed by the girl was how Arkas raised his head to chip away at the mageia that surrounded her. "I am not your whore," she sneered.
Hermes' eyes widened; hands raised in the air as he leaned closer towards her. "No! No. That is not what I meant, fos ton matión mou." The energy swirled about her once more and he looked to see Drew staring unbothered. She caught his eye, brinkley nervously before turning back to Lea who took a deep breath.
Her skin was a bit pale and sweaty as she calmed down. Drew snorted, passing over a handkerchief. "Alabaster is going to be so disappointed to know that you read none of those books that he sent you to control your power."
Lea rolled her eyes as she dotted her face to get rid of the sweat. "I do not have magical powers because I am not a part of that weird little world." She waved a hand at the god watching them in amusement. "And when the aliens take over, I'd have already built up a nice defense and shelter and would survive their takeover out of spite and the fact that I knew better."
Her soulmate sighed breathily. "Isn't she so wonderfully stubborn?" Lea scoffed while Drew snickered. "You are the most captivating woman that I have ever had the pleasure to meet."
"You know Aphrodite."
"And yet, your beauty—"
"Do not finish that sentence," Lea grimaced. "Do you want me dead? According to your little anecdotes, she's killed people for less."
Drew nodded her head as she inspected her nails. "Oh, she definitely has. Mother's rage is quite legendary. Ha! Her rage makes the modern interpretations of Queen Hera's look like a temper tantrum."
Hermes stared at the child of doves. "Your Mother was responsible for a ten-year war of death and destruction that led to an entire kingdom being wiped out."
"And while that is true, Tyndareus forgot Mother in his sacrifices, and she was so angry and insulted that she made his daughters twice and thrice wed and deserters of their husbands. And of course, Menelaos had promised her a hecatomb as the price of the marriage and didn't offer it. She could not let such mockery of her status stand, mi'lord. So, she… got even."
Lea raised a brow. "Not to mention that Troy was fated to be destroyed and that Big Daddy Z and MILF Themis planned for it. And you know, Chiron could have sent her an invitation instead of disregarding her."
Hermes turned almost as green as his eyes. "Please never refer to Father as that ever again." He then blinked with a pleased smile on his face. "You are still studying us."
Lea sniffed, "It's a lot to get through."
"Tell me, agapoúla, why do you argue with the will of the gods?"
The girl rolled her eyes. "I do not believe in deities."
"You should," he warned. "One of the others may not be as forgiving as I."
Lea shrugged, raising her eyes to look at the sky. "Even if I were to sleep when I'm dead, it still wouldn't be enough to make up for how exhausted I am after finals."
The god laughed at her words. "You are very amusing."
"What is the favor that you are requesting, mi'lord," Drew chimed in. The khaos-blessed blinked as if they forgot that she had been there once more.
"Ah yes." He sat straighter in his seat. "Things are quite… dire at the camp especially since…" He cut himself off and cleared his throat. "They have of course only grown worse with time and as such, Father felt that there needed to be a… change in… management."
Lea perked up from where she had previously radiated uninterest. "Oh?"
Hermes nodded his head sagely. "And as such, a decision was made to warn off any others that would betray the love of the gods. A Tantalean punishment, so to speak for those that may spy upon those of you that are still favored."
She hummed, sharing a look with Drew.
"A lot of children left, including more of my own." Lea's face shuttered at the reminder that she was "spiritually" a stepmother to children either the same age as her or even older than her! "There will be a quest. I have seen it and so has my brother, Apollôn. I would like for you to take the quest and give this to him." In his hands was a framed painting titled: Ἀντήνωρ.
"Antenor," Drew translated.
"Who is that?"
"He was a counselor to King Priam of Troy during the events of the Trojan War."
"In Dante's Divine Comedy, Infernio, it's said that a Trojan soldier who betrayed his city to the Greeks. He's said to be in Kôkytos which was believed to be the ninth and lowest circle of Hell. And the second ring around the lake — though I swore when I visited the Netherworld just yesterday, it was a river, but what do I – Hermês Khthonios know about the Underworld, eh? Anyhow, the second ring, Antenora, is named after him. It's where the Traitors to their Country resided."
"So, what? The book is a warning? Don't betray us or we'll throw us in the lake of tears?"
The god's lips quirked. "The fourth ring is named Judecca after Judas Iscariot. The apostle who betrayed Christ."
"Wait," Lea stated, slamming her hand on the table. She reached into her bag before pulling out her notebook that was almost overflowing with notes and loose sheets as she tried to make sense of everything. He made the joke that she was studying them before, but for all her denial, it was actually an obsession especially in regard to him and her Father. "Okay, so you told me before that the only deities that existed were you and the rest of the grecian deities. Which you know, I still think is bullshit, but whatever. And then taking note of the fact that you all have continuously walked the earth and played key roles in our history then that must mean… one of you played the part of Yehoshua."
"Yehoshua," Drew asked.
"Jesus' real name but it's unclear about all of that." She waved a hand at her soulmate. "I'm more inclined to believe that they exist as gods than he did, but then again… in what Exodus, its says: 'You shall have no other gods before me'which implies the existance of other gods.
"In Isiah, he says: I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me. He also says that 'You are my witnesses and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.'"
Lea eyed her, "Catholic school or christian academy?"
"Both."
"What about 'for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God'in exodus? That You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.' That implies each realm exists where the sons of Rhea ruled."
"In Psalm, they say that: Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so, do all who trust in them."
Lea eyed the so-called god sitting with them. "Man, I wished he shut up like those idols."
Hermes snorted. "Tell me how you really feel."
"And lastly," Drew says. Neither girl noticed how he stood and started to subtly herd them away. "In Romans, it said: 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.'"
Lea perked up turning away. "Hey! So that brings me to my next thought that if we take into account that Pangaea once existed and how there are similarities between all the myths though in the case of Christianity some of that was stolen but anyway! If we take that into account and the fact that life started in Africa… looking at the Horn of Africa on a Pangaea map puts the migration to spread throughout East Africa and to Southern Africa and then they migrated out of Africa through the Horn of Africa to Eurasia. But again, on the Pangaea map that puts that near Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Jerusalem and Libya. And the people of the Cyclades civilization lived in the Aegean Sea which on the Pangaea was in between Turkey, Greece, and Libya."
"Is there a point to this," Hermes asked in amusement.
"Mm, yes. Life started in Africa and that civilization all started in one place. Before I decided that faith and religion and science wasn't for me because it's all a load of crap, I used to think that all the gods and Big Papa G were all sitting in their own kingdoms in the heavens minding their business and laughing at mortals. And then you know major shit like slavery and genocide happen and I realized that none of it could be possible."
"Lea," Drew admonished.
The girl shrugged. "Personally speaking, all that came near the end of the Roman empire who were doing a bunch of bullshit. I would do anything to tear them down too if it means that I win."
"Religion isn't a competition," Drew chided.
"And yet Christianity won," Lea snorted.
"How about we go back to the topic you had before," Hermes said. "About one of us pretending to be Jesus?"
Lea smiled, "Yeah! I want to say the Trojan hero, Aeneas, found Rome. You know Jesus was God's only begotten son and the phrase 'only begotten' translates the Greek word monogenes. Monogenes has two primary definitions. The first definition is 'pertaining to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship.' The second definition is 'pertaining to being the only one of its kind or class, unique in kind.' Meaning her only demi-divine child. And the romans believed that after he died, he was raised to godhood like how Jesus was after he rose after three days."
"Aeneas is a god," Hermes confirmed. "He's one of the gatekeepers of Heaven and he serves in his Mother's retinue."
"Good for him," Drew smiled.
"He was not Jesus," the god continued. "One because his Mother would have definitely tried to kill everyone after all she had done to save him. And two, because he found what became Rome long before the crucifixion happened."
Lea nodded. "Timelines wise I figured that which brings me back to Mr. DILF."
"Mr. DILF?" Hermes looked as if he didn't want to know who she would name that time.
"Mr. D," she said, waving her hand, not noticing how his eyes burned the same shade as greek fire in anger. "In the roman myths, he was considered the son of the Roman Demeter. Ceres, I think? And there, he Can turn water into wine like Jesus. Died and reborn like Jesus. The Only Begotten Son because he was Ceres' only begotten son. Regularly hung out with the poor and misfits since he was like the Patron of the Plebeians. And you know The Whole Bread of My Body thing. He's an agricultural god and his Mother is Ceres, the goddess of grain."
"You put a lot of thought in this," Hermes stated, pulling the two girls to a stop. They both blinked as if they had just noticed their different surroundings.
Lea shrugged, "I get bored easily."
The god leaned forward into her space. "Do not worry, Leaneíras. Tis the prerogative of those that are khaos-blessed to know all about their blessings. It just shows that they are the one person who truly knows you and I want you to know me in entirety."
"You want me to worship you," Lea shot back. His arm wrapped around her waist and the widening of her eyes almost overtook her entire face as she flushed as brightly as a bad sun rash.
"I would not oppose it," he muttered. "How lucky I shall be to have one as beautiful as you to worship me." He leaned in closer, pressing a kiss to her cheek, lingering upon the skin, "Do not forget my favor and I shall see you soon, Ocelle. Dream of me, my love."
Lea blinked as he disappeared, turning to look at Drew yet stopping short at the sight before her. "What happened here?"
