Chapter Thirteen

## Thirteen

In his sudden dash, Hermes had nearly knocked Athena on her end, but her balance proved more than capable of keeping her standing as she seized her brother's wrist as he passed her by. Then, planting her feet, Athena reigned Hermes in and tossed him to the red sand dotted by the shards of what was once the ghost of Flavia. "Where do you think you are going?!"

 Hermes scoffed and averted his eyes, looking put out by his sister's grounding of him. Then, after a moment spent pouting, Hermes shot his eyes back to Athena as he climbed back to his feet and threw out his arms in a dramatic gesture. "Someone just defiled Flavia's heart! Just barely! If we make haste we can find the culprit!"

 Scoffing, Athena shook her head. "Impossible, brother. Flavia's corpse is somewhere in Sparta. We don't know where and even if we did, none of these caverns lead to Sparta. Even with your godspeed, the culprit would long be gone by the time you arrived!"

 Hermes rolled his eyes and lightly tapped Athena's forehead with his caduceus in a gesture.

 Not amused, Athena disarmed the messenger god and smacked his forehead with his own stick. As he rubbed the bruise on his brow, she returned the rod to its owner and let out a long sigh. "Fine. I see your point. You still have one relocation charge, I suppose. But that does not change the fact that we don't have the slightest clue where to find Flavia's corpse."

 Charon scoffed as he strolled closer. "Allow me to be of service," he said as he knelt and claimed a shard from the red sand. Blowing his breath over it, the ferryman scattered the red sand from it and then wiped the shard on the tattered sleeve of his topcoat. Waving the shard under his nose, Charon's eyes raised in their sockets, and then he touched his tongue to the shard and smacked his lips repeatedly. Finally, he nodded, slathered his tongue across the shard, and winced.

 Athena glanced at Hermes, but her brother did not seem fazed by this. Returning her eyes to Charon with trepidation, she awaited his response.

 "Basement of the temple in Mars' Stand," said the ferryman.

 Hermes looked to Athena with a raised eyebrow and a wide smirk.

 "Okay then... Thank you for your assistance, friend," Athena said, giving a polite nod to the Stygian god. "Pardon our haste, but..."

 He held up his hand and shook his head. "No apologies. Safe travels now, y'hear?"

 Athena smiled briefly before she extended her arm and braced herself, closing her eyes for what she expected to happen next.

 With his caduceus in one hand, Hermes snatched the goggles from the top of his hat and lowered them over his eyes. Hermes then tipped his hat to Charon and activated his talaria. Then, after taking Athena by her extended wrist and letting her grab his wrist, the god wrapped his other arm around his sister's hips and took flight.

 As they crossed the red sands of the Valley of the Dead, they left a sandstorm in their wake, and as Hermes sped into the mouth of one of the caverns, he gave Athena a swing and planted her on his back, where she clung tight and buried her chin against his shoulder.

 Without a sign of slowing down, Hermes navigated the caverns' winding ascent and stone columns before plunging caduceus first into the wall of limbo. Then, after a moment drawn out into a brief eternity, they emerged, casting off the inky residue of limbo in their wake.

 Athena barely had time to register they had left the Underworld, and the haunting silence of limbo before Hermes was dodging worshipers and Deep Druids with uncanny skill and preternatural reflexes as he ascended to the surface.

 Then, flying into the light, the god and goddess emerged from the pit like a slug from the carbine barrel. Their departure from the cavern caused a loud blast of air, knocking some mortals intent on entering the cave on their backsides.

 "Sorry!" shouted Athena as Hermes clasped his caduceus with both hands and caused a bubble of essence to envelope them both, and in an instant, the landscape changed from the sky high above a beautiful meadow surrounding a ghastly pit to the interior of the Spartan great temple's chamber of worship.

 As another blast of air flew out from them in their wake, blowing out candles and causing the mortals to shield their eyes, Athena scrambled off Hermes' back and straightened her clothing, most notably adjusting her skirt and sliding her glasses up her nose.

 With firm footsteps on approach, Jocasta called out to the gods. "Mercury? What is it and…" she paused, unable to contain her displeasure. "Why have you brought Minerva with you?!"

 Athena glowered at the pontifex, having no love for the imperial-styled names. Not missing that she was not exceedingly welcome in this temple, even if she were worshipped openly… in theory. In practice, she expected the patrons now eyeing her to be sharing the pontifex's sentiment.

 "No time for you," Hermes said as he boldly walked forward and shoved Jocasta aside, knocking her onto a bench in the worship alcove bearing Athena's armored statue.

 Athena followed her brother and flashed a grin at Jocasta as she passed. "Pontifex," she said with a smirk and nod.

 As the god and goddess approached them, the templars that had been in Jocasta's wake stepped aside. They did not complain as they allowed Athena and her brother to march into the corridor behind the Ascension Anchor and follow the stairs into the depths below.

 Hermes removed his goggles in the darkness below and returned them to his bowler hat. Then, channeling essence through his caduceus, the god transformed the rod into a makeshift torch as blue essence circled the scepter's shaft, casting a glow in the corridor.

 "It looks empty," Athena surmised.

 "Looks can be deceiving," Hermes warned and then placed his caduceus near a lantern sconce. He placed his hand against it and looked to Athena with a nod. "It's still warm."

 "Someone blew these out?" Athena said, touching the lantern herself and nodding. "Recently, too. But why?"

 Hermes agreed with a consenting nod. "Shadows are the friend of the conspirator," he said as he swung his herald's scepter to point at the nearby door left partially ajar.

 Athena grabbed a short sword from a wall decoration and followed Hermes into the room. The room's construction was similar to the burial chamber in the Athenian temple, and in the middle of the room, on a metal gurney, were the remains of Flavia.

 "I don't understand," said Athena, slowly approaching the corpse and looking the stripped body up and down, even casting off the sheet from it to not obscure the details from her discerning eye. "You said her heart had to be defiled, but they have not even begun the autopsy and her breast is intact without even a pin prick upon it."

 Opening his mouth and simply staring, Hermes had only silence to offer for once. Then, after Athena gave him an inquisitive glance, he offered nothing but a shrug.

 Scoffing, Athena stumbled in the dark, closed the room door, and latched the lock to prevent Jocasta or others from disturbing their investigation. The goddess then decided she would like to look upon this in a better light. So, she grabbed the flint-click chain that dangled from the bottom of the lantern near the door and gave it a tug.

 No sooner had Athena done that than the culprit revealed themselves, having hidden in the room's shadows just beyond the glow of the caduceus. Startled by the sudden sight of the figure behind Hermes, Athena let out a shriek to warn her brother, but she was too late as Hermes had a wicked sacrifice dagger run between his shoulder blades.

 As Hermes stumbled forward, he knocked over the corpse and its gurney, then tripped over the lopsided gurney and got tangled in the contraption, dropping his caduceus as he did so, causing its glow to fade.

 As Athena charged ahead with the sword in hand, the thin cloaked figure, dressed head-to-toe in black, rolled forward and ducked Athena's first strike, snatching up Hermes' fallen caduceus from the ground in the process and then pivoting on knee and foot to use that acquired relic to block Athena's strike and cause her blade to shatter when pressed between her Olympian strength and the indestructible relic.

 While Athena eyed the useless weapon in her hand, the defiler of Flavia swung the caduceus across Athena's face and knocked her into another gurney, causing her to stumble as she tried to keep her feet. Gripping the rolling contraption made her intent to find stability more difficult, but she managed.

 Keeping her balance and returning to the fight, Athena gave chase to her foul opponent, leaving Hermes to shout out in pain with only the dead to hear his cries. In the corridor, Athena tore after the fleeing menace. But, much to her surprise, Athena found her quarry to be faster than she. So, to offset this advantage, she snatched a lantern from the wall and threw it down the corridor. It struck the feet out from under the escaping violator, sending them stumbling and bracing against a wall.

 Athena was on top of the villain soon enough. Reaching for them, she snatched their collar and slammed the perpetrator into the walls of the lower corridor with such ferocity that a mortal would have been killed or crippled for life.

 The assailant simply groaned and delivered a fierce backward kick to Athena's knee. Then, they delivered a follow-up strike to her gut, causing her to stumble backward.

 Athena did not avert her eyes or give up the fight. Now getting a good look at them, even in the dark hallway, Athena saw they were wearing a leather mask with large tinted goggles and a suit of leather armor. All of it was black as night. The subtle curve of the assailant's chest caught her attention the most.

 This masked female winded up the caduceus in their hand and bashed Athena across the brow, knocking her back and causing her head to strike the stone wall. The blow was dizzying, but Athena had been dealt worse, having survived fights with Titans and vigorous sparring sessions with Hephaestus.

 Athena wiped the ichor off her lips and then smiled with steam coming off her ichor-soaked teeth. "Is that the best you got?"

 In response, she took another swing at Athena, but Athena was ready for it this time. She caught the caduceus and then headbutted her attacker. Then, as her enemy shook off that trauma, Athena shoved her against the wall and, with both hands, pressed the caduceus against the assailant's throat. As the intruder kicked and squirmed, Athena spat the ichor that filled her mouth, spraying it over the mask and causing it to smolder and smoke, blinding them as it obscured the lenses of their goggles.

 The other fumbled about her belt and soon grabbed a device that let out a peculiar shriek. As she shoved it into Athena's left breast, the device let out a surge of potent essence. Clutching her chest and snaring the device, Athena fumbled backward with a pained wince as she felt her heart struggle to handle the surge of painful essence that had just been directed into it.

 The intruder kicked Athena backward, knocking her against the far wall. With a grunt, the black-clad female tore down the hall blindly, tearing off her mask and goggles as she did so.

 After a few moments of gathering her composure, Athena felt her heart begin to beat at its natural rhythm, and she gave a concerning glance to the strange device in her hand. It looked like some clockwork contraption that Hephaestus himself would have devised. But it was not her focus, so she kept it in one hand and the caduceus in the other as she returned her attention to the matter at hand.

 Giving chase, Athena ascended the steps and chased the woman into the worship chamber and saw long blonde hair casting down the shoulders of her coat. "Give up!" Athena shouted as templars raced down the opposite end of the temple to head her off. The temple guards had been alerted by the goddess' scuffle downstairs.

 "Not this time," said the woman as she looked up, her face still hidden. "You'll have to catch me but this time, I won't be so easy for you to dismember as I have a dozens of limbs now."

 Athena raised her eyebrow, befuddled by that wording, and then as she took a step closer to intercept her, the mysterious intruder shot upward in a blast of essence-charged wind that threw Athena into the Ascension Anchor with enough force to cause her senses to escape her for precious seconds.

 When the air in her lungs returned to her, Athena was on the temple floor. Littered in shattered glass, much like the floor around her, Athena saw the arriving templars seeing to a dozen or so wounded patrons. Standing amid this mess and approaching Athena was the glowering Ares.

 "Explain this," he said with a peculiar grin across his scar-riddled face.

 "Feck me," Athena cursed under her breath as she grabbed the strange device and caduceus from the floor and put her feet beneath her, groaning as she did.

## Characters

### Gods

* Hermes
* Athena
* Charon
* Ares