Chapter 7: The power of Words
I trailed my dagger down from the Atlas' forehead to his completely black eye. The skin splitting open in a thin line despite the exaggerated pressure I was exercising, golden ichor trailed down his cheek and reached its chin falling on the ground in a single droplet.
And the titan responsible for holding the sky was afraid.
"Don't." the titan spoke.
Pleaded.
Begged.
It was in his tone, in the way he closed his eyes as he was trying to deny my existence, his fear rippled to the air without his consent, but to me, it was unmistakable.
"Why?" I asked.
Atlas looked at me again, at loss for words, like he had difficulties in understanding me, so my smile widened: "Why shouldn't I?"
The titan licked his lips, his eyes darting around, looking for what, I had no idea, even if I could imagine he was looking for either a weapon or something to bargain.
"I can get you golden apples from the tree..." he whispered.
The gods from Olympus may have been more or less on par with the current times, they were aware of the happenings in the world, Dionysus had slipped me a list of cocktails before one of the parties I threw at the camp, and I remembered Hermes had a cellphone instead of his caduceus.
Atlas was not. And it was more than likely that neither his brothers and sisters were, or his daughters, for what mattered.
Ignorance is the heaviest chain. I realized dryly.
So, when I pushed Atlas into believing me, he went back to the only thing he could offer: completing Heracles' task.
"I would need to hold the sky for you, wouldn't I?" I laughed, hopping around him in an ecstatic little dance: "Yes! How fun!"
I got close to him once again, my nose less than a centimeter from his: "It could be interesting, how much does the sky weigh?"
I twirled on myself: "A man named Archimedes once said: 'Give me a place to stand and with a lever, I will move the whole world.' But the weight of the primordial you hold, it can't be measured, can it? It's immaterial, it's metaphysical!" It was a fascinating idea.
"Heracles was a powerful demigod." Atlas tried to nod, only for the ground under his knee to fissure along a thin crack: "But it was never about strength, only about will. It's always about will, strength is only a small branch of the tree."
"Now that your attention wavers the ground cracks and tries to jump beyond you!" I noted with glee, fascinating was too little a word to describe what I was looking at, and yet it made sense, Atlas passed upon men excessive daring, which was the end result of extreme self-confidence, again, something born from an indomitable will.
Atlas looked at me, unable to understand my mind, and how I could be interested in what was happening in front of me, if only because I was in a very deadly predicament.
"And it's not that you physically can't let the sky fall, it is about your pride, no scratch that. It's about your will!" I realized: "It is because you led the titans in battle in order to claim the heavens, and as such you were punished with the task of holding them!"
My mind was flying as fast as light itself: "You are proving yourself worthy of ruling the heavens by showing to everyone that you can hold the weight of the position!"
Atlas was perfectly still, neither denying nor confirming my findings, but I could tell, and I could see how his back slightly straightened, like being recognized gave him strength, but I could also tell how the slight lowering of his head showed me that he was preparing himself to be laughed at.
Like a child with a dream that he didn't dare to confess. Something that he would fight for, but that he was used to hiding it from the world, and in that moment, I understood Atlas.
And I was awed, among the other things, the titan was the one who had been credited with the creation of Astronomy.
I could believe that this was the one rumored to be well versed in mathematics and philosophy, instead of the two-dimensional character portrayed in Riordan's books.
"Atlas." I repeated, embracing the weight of his pride, his unrelenting determination, and the strength of will that had him effectively shackled to his task.
An immortal had all the time in the world, and differently from Prometheus, he likely had the means to trick some half-god to hold the sky for him.
His daughters are near, and so is Ladon... how long would it take for him to organize something to trick another to take his place? I tried to put myself into his shoes.
He led the Titans to take the Olympus. I reasoned.
He won't leave his position until he has a legitimate chance overthrow the current rule, his pride, his nature, his determination, his headstrong-ness, his fatal flaw, won't allow anything less. I realized.
He has been birthed by mankind's faith, his psychology and character had grown around a basic concept. He is defined as Strong, Willful, as an immortal with excessive daring. His personality built itself over time around those ideas.
"When Heracles came, you took for him three apples." I resumed the previous line of thought, smiling widely.
Immortals do not change. I smiled widely, I had just made an extraordinary discovery that likely was true for every immortal born out of faith. Heracles, who was now an immortal god, was the same as he was when he ascended, but the path, growth, and history he had up to that moment had been his own.
"I'd like to surpass any that came before me, it sounds... fun." I turned my smile into a conspirational grin.
"I can hold back my boredom for a while, when I'm doing something interesting." I tilted my head, invading his personal space.
"Breaking Heracles' record would be exhilarating." I rolled my shoulders.
"I accept your offer, Atlas." and again I accepted the weight that came with his name: "I'll hold the sky, giving you enough time to grab me 6 apples, twice the number Heracles managed, and to chat with your daughters a bit. Maybe introduce me, since I'll swing by to say hi after your return."
"But be careful." My tone turned eager "My will is unbreakable only as long as I am interested. The moment I think I had enough, the sky falls."
The titan stared at me, the suspect that all my madness had been a ruse to drive him to that offer. Frankly, I wasn't sure myself, the more I thought about what had happened during our discussion, the more interested I was in watching the consequences of letting the sky fall.
"There are many aspects to willpower: determination, focus, dedication, stubbornness, self-control, discipline, bravery, selflessness, and selfishness." Atlas muttered to himself, almost as he was showing me why I couldn't make it.
I grinned like a loon: "I will surpass any that came before me." And it was a statement, like saying the 'sky is blue'. I would not be denied.
"The garden is accessible only during the sunset, I'll be as fast as I can, but during the summer the sunset can last as long as an hour and a half, are you prepared to endure?" the titan asked me, licking his lips in trepidation.
I could guess that seeing your daughters after millennia could be overwhelming.
"I am." I stated: "But I shall repeat, I get bored easily, don't make me wait, I don't know after how long the thought of seeing the sky fall will look more fascinating than surpassing those that came before me."
I straightened myself and watched west, where the sun was slowly but surely making its way towards the horizon: "After all," I kept talking, my chat with Hekate blazing into my mind: "There has never been someone like me, so my mark on this reality should be suitably unique."
"So you wish to leave a mark on this world, Nameless?" Atlas wondered, his eyes drifted to the west.
"And doing so as an Immortal, without a doubt..." he grinned a bit, believing that I was bluffing.
"Immortality is the absence of change." I cut him: "Immortality is a golden cage without walls that constricts and limits your choices. I was born free, and I'll die in the same way. The Fates are not cutting me down right now, does it means I am fated to destroy the world? So that a new Age can be born from its ashes? Will you keep your word? Will we become friends?"
I was honestly curious about the relationship between the Fates and free will, and pondering out loud, while confirming to Atlas that yes, I would let the sky fall, helped me finding a sense to my existence, if it had one. Doubtful I scoffed.
"I will swear on the Stix." Atlas rumbled.
"Don't bother." I shook my head "A promise on the Styx is a chain, and I despise them." Besides, I knew that immortals could break their word.
"You would trust me to keep my word?" the titan was bewildered, and made me laugh.
"I know you, Atlas." I turned towards him, noticing that he had stopped trying to reprimand me for the constant use of his name.
"You'll get enough time to see your daughters and an occasion to stretch your legs. I'll get to experiment what holding the sky is like, I'll get to be introduced to your daughters, and six golden apples to the side." I shrugged, it looked clear enough to me.
"If the sky falls, all Olympus will fall on your back even if you manage to escape the aftermath, and you are without an army to lead." I tilted my head.
"It would be glorious... for you, I mean, going out in a blaze of glory, only to be forgotten by the next generation of titans once Uranus manages to find his virility." I pictured the absolute new that such a world would be and smiled again.
"Such an event would likely kickstart every apocalypse in every pantheon. Would they mesh? Or would they slide one over another, like oil and water? Such an event would be seen even by the dead, so I would still be entertained."
For me it was a win-win.
"So you aren't really trusting my word..." Atlas muttered, he sounded almost... offended? By my lack of trust, the thought made me smile devilishly.
"Ooh, don't be like that, my friend." I knelt once more in front of him, bringing my face less than a centimeter from his, finally finding the right words to express my thoughts.
"I despise chains, and you're free to do what you want, either keep your word, or don't: you know the consequences of both those courses of action."
We were very close, and when the sun touched the horizon, Atlas shrugged, and the sky landed on my shoulders.
The cold, damp clouds gave me an instant of relief before the weight settled on me.
I felt like the vertebrae in my spine were being welded together by a
blowtorch, my left knee was rammed into the ground, my kneecap screaming murder, my back folding like paper.
No.
I pushed back, straightening my back under the infinite weight.
I was holding pain, suffering, hopelessness, hunger, fear, tiredness.
The weight of the sky didn't have limits, and it eroded me. My consciousness swayed on the brink of the abiss, my thoughts died, my dreams and hopes crumbled, my name was forgotten.
No.
My arms clutched the clouds over my shoulders, grabbing them with despair evident in how blood started to seep from beneath my nails, my teeth were slammed together, making difficult for me to breath properly, my heart was thundering beyond my control.
I held the sky.
I had closed my eyes when Atlas shrugged, and from behind my eyelids, I could see that my task was doomed to fail.
I was no Heracles, no Atlas. I didn't even belong to the PJO reality, I had no purpose, no reason to exist.
I pushed back, my right foot trying to find leverage against the ground, my muscles on the verge of tearing, my bones almost snapping, my ligaments about to be shred, my soul slowly crumbling over the colossal mistake that my pride had led me to make.
No.
I refused to stop pushing back. Like hell I was going to let a tiny thing like the sky kill me. I didn't know if it was possible, but I held back the sky. I had willingy taken it, and I would carry through my promise to Atlas.
I would hold the sky until he was back.
Or until I became bored.
And the mad-me that I had pretended to be during my chat with Atlas raised his head, grinning madly in my thoughts.
What if you drop it?
I couldn't not think about it.
Holding the sky was... there weren't words. Painful, yes, beyond whatever mortal could accomplish, sure.
Grating.
Annihilating.
My bones were ground together, my thoughts slowly slurring one against another like they were moving in molten tar, there was only one task, one purpose, one duty.
I pushed.
The sky would not fall.
Time had lost any meaning, and I too, had lost any sense of self, I was crumbling into nothingness, why did I have to suffer? I could just let go...
No.
I gritted my teeth, feeling the tang, metallic taste of blood on my tongue, and I was too far gone to feel any discomfort caused by the sweat coursing from my forehead over to my nose, on the point of which it formed droplets that fell on the ground.
Beyond the agonizing effort, I could feel my bones trembling, my muscles had forgotten what not being contracted meant, my breath was coming in ragged rasps, my lungs aching for more air, for less work, for an end to come. My heart was fluttering, blood madly rushing through my veins, washing away cramps that reformed immediately after, but the pain they caused was almost a relief over the white noise of sheer agony that I was suffering.
I just wanted for it to end, why would I care about anything else?
The sky started digging into my back. No.
I denied it. I was holding it, and it would stay above my shoulders. I pushed like I had never been doing anything else, and for all I knew, all my existence had been pain and the slow eroding of my sense of self, but that, that was unforgivable.
My name is Icarus. I remembered.
I was holding the sky, but thinking it wasn't enough. I had to declare it.
Holding the sky was nothing. I would do much more, be much more, and I would not go quietly in the night after completing what the Fates wanted from me, nor I would be nailed down by the weight of the sky.
"My name is Icarus." I repeated, my voice steady through my rasping breaths, and I opened my eyes in time to see the sunlight dropping behind the horizon, tossing the world into the night.
"My name is Icarus." I said once more: "And I am free."
The sky stood uncomfortably over my shoulders, his pressure not lessening, but I was holding it back. I would not be crushed.
My red-rimmed eyes finally managed to focus on what was happening around me, and my bleary vision made out a humanoid figure looming over me.
Atlas dropped a jute sack on the side of the small plateau, a branch tied to it like a classic cartoon vagabond had used it to pack his things.
He didn't come closer.
I chuckled among my heavy breaths. My body was still trying to give up, but 'mind over matter' became much more real in a world of gods and titans. So I endured.
"I'm not done." I warned Atlas off, I wasn't done playing with the sky.
"How are your daughters?" I asked after a while. The sky was heavy, its willingness to crush me, and whatever was around hadn't abated in the slightest, however, I had reforged my will to endure it. And everything I was had as a fulcrum myself being free. So, simply as that, while I found in myself the strength of will to 'not-fold', I wouldn't.
"Surprised to see me, few manage to reach Otri without crossing their garden." The titan tilted his head, looking at me with something akin to respect: "And curious to meet you, if I have to be honest."
"So you did tell them about me." I uttered a rasping laugh.
"I don't know your name, so I couldn't introduce you." the titan grumbled in distaste: even if he had no fault, he disliked not completing every aspect of the pact we had struck: "Are your curiosity and boredom sated now?"
"Did I hold the sky for longer than Hercules?" I asked back, minutely tilting my shoulders to try and alleviate a sudden cramp. I blessed the new pain that allowed me to not think about the disastrous state my body was likely in. More than a half-god or not, I sure as hell wasn't built for the kind of effort I was forcing myself through.
"Not yet." he shook his head.
I pushed back the sky, its will trying to squash me. But it couldn't. I knew who I was, and I wouldn't fade because of a dickless primordial.
"Stories credited you with the invention of astronomy." I said, my voice surprisingly even given the effort I was putting in not-dying.
Atlas answered to my unspoken question: "They are true: where my brother birthed the sun, the dawn and the moon, I invented the first celestial sphere."
I rolled his shoulders, likely marveling at the feeling of lighteness and freedom that was so uncommon to him.
His voice had turned wistful, and he was staring upwards, towards the starry sky only partially obscured by the column of clouds resting on my shoulders.
My ears managed to pick up a few words out of his half-whispered grumbling: "... Orion... lots to answer for..."
And my mind shot through all the stories I knew about Orion, suddenly remembering that the seven Pleyads were Atlas' daughters, and they had been chased by Orion, who had also dared to attack their mother, before being turned into doves and then stars by Zeus, so that they could comfort Atlas while he held up the sky, while being safe from the titan, whom still chased them in the sky.
Once more I wondered what the immortals saw when looking at the world, if they could distinguish between the myths they were a part of and the reality mankind had built them from.
"Beer dulls a memory, brand sets it burning, but wine is the best for a sore heart's yearning." I repeated Dionysus words: "There is a leather canteen that won't run out of wine in my backpack." I tilted my head indicating the backpack that I had dropped when I had reached the top of Mont Talampais.
At the titan questioning glance, I tried to shrug, only for the sky to remind me that I couldn't.
"A mortal poet named Hesiod once wrote:
And if longing seizes you for sailing the stormy seas,
when the Pleiades flee mighty Orion
and plunge into the misty deep
and all the gusty winds are raging,
then do not keep your ship on the wine-dark sea
but, as I bid you, remember to work the land."
Without uttering a word, Atlas walked toward my backpack and dug out my canteen, uncorking it and taking long sips. The titan walked back to me and sat down, leaning backwards until he rested on his elbows, free to drink while looking at the stars.
"You know a lot of things for a demigod." he grumbled.
"Talk with me, Atlas, the longer you hold my interest, the more you can rest." I reminded him of our respective positions.
"What do you know about my daughters that live in the garden?" he tilted his head, without stopping his stargazing.
I grunted, I may have found a way to not crumble under the sky, but I was far from comfortable, and far from being able to tell a story. The dry chuckle of the titan of strength, endurance, and astronomy told me that he knew it perfectly.
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to recount the words that flashed in my mind: "Far on the sloping margin of the western sea sinking Helios had unyoked his flaming steeds, and laved their bright manes in the springs of Oceanus . . . and the swift-striding Hours, who strip him of his reins and the woven glory of his golden coronet, and relive his horse's dripping breasts of the hot harness; some turn the well-deserving steeds into the soft pasture, and lean the chariot backward, pole in air."
The titan let out a deep breath: "Hesperis, the Hour of the evening." he took several gulps of the wine: "She was beautiful and fleeting, with her yellow dress..."
"My daughters remind me of her, thank you for giving me time to talk with them." Atlas reminisced with a wry smile, and I would never again doubt Dionysus power. That wine had turned him into a sappy titan!
"What are their names?" I asked between my deep breaths. The sky tried to crush me in the moment I had lowered my guard, but I ruthlessly squashed its chance. I will not bow.
"Chrysothemis, the Golden law, Asterope, the Starry-faced, Hygieia, and Lipara, the Rich land. It hurt me discovering that one of them betrayed her family, forsaking her own name..." He shook his head.
After a while, his eyes left the east and he was looking somewhere else: "Pleione lived in a southern region of Greece, the mortals of the time called it Arcadia, on a mountain named Kyllini. Mortals used to pray her and make offerings because she had a soft spot for sailors, she called them brave, because they sailed in the night with nothing but their hearts to guide them. With her, I had the Hyades, Hyas, and the Pleiades."
He took several gulps of the wine, a lone tear trailing down his cheek.
"When Hyas died, killed by his own prey, the proud fool, his sisters cried themselves to death. The King placed the Hyades in a cluster on the Taurus constellation, so that at least at night, I can see some of my daughters."
Immortals do not change. I reminded myself, finding that the pain of the ancient being at my side was as raw as it was when the facts happened, millennia before, and that in a twisted way, Atlas respected Zeus, if only because he granted him the possibility to glance upon his daughters.
Time had lost again any meaning during his talking, and so I was extremely surprised when the sky tinted itself pink in the east.
I endured. I would surpass Heracles, freeing myself from the usual aims and limits of a common demigod.
Atlas let out a deep belly laugh, corking my leather canteen and coming close to me: "Now you have surpassed Heracles."
He didn't ask for the sky, he didn't need to, because I managed to force my way through those last agonizing moments, feeling like the sky wanted nothing more than crushing me when I was done because of my impudence. With a familiarity that I wished on nobody, Atlas freed me from my burden.
I shrugged off the weight and fell forward, effectively slamming my face on the ground.
While I passed out, I could hear the deep rumble of Atlas' laugh.
16 July 2000
When the sun touched the horizon, there was a sudden thickening of the Mist all around me, making it more solid, like a curtain. I pushed it aside and crossed it.
When the fog cleared, I was still on the side of the mountain, but the road was dirt covered in thick, lush grass. The sunset made a bloodred slash across the sea. The summit of the mountain seemed closer now, swirling with storm clouds and raw power, Mount Otri looked suddenly... bigger. And the path to the top, which I knew and I had already walked multiple times, was suddenly leading through a lush meadow of shadows and flowers: the garden of twilight.
I eyed the rest of the downhill park with curiosity, it looked more or less the same, while the path going towards the top went through a terrain that clearly wasn't there before.
I ducked under a branch and crossed the meadow, it looked interesting. I walked slowly, relying on the long branch that Atlas had ripped from the golden apple tree. It was a sturdy, straight piece of wood, And I had sweated seven bucks to prune it, stashing in my backpack all the wood and leaves that I divested it of, one could never know when a magical piece of wood could be useful.
The garden was vast and bountful. The grass itself was lush and vibrating with life. It took me exactly four seconds to take off my shoes and going barefoot across the sea of green. The light breeze made every single blade of grass dance, bringing forth the sweet smell of more flowers that I couldn't either hope to count or recognize.
Beyond flowers littering the grass, and the bushes of roses and whatnot, the trees where outstanding. Their presence was unmistakably magical, but it was far from the dangerous vibe of the forest I grew up in, the magic permeating the air was... tame.
It was obvious, from the fluvial stones drawing paths across the garden, that a lot of work had been put in keeping this place cared for. There was an absolute absence of irrigators, meaning that every single flowerbed was cared for individually.
If it hadn't been for the enormous dragon, the garden would've been the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. The grass shimmered with silvery evening light, and the flowers were such brilliant colors they almost glowed in the twilight. Stepping stones of polished black marble led around either side of a five-story-tall apple tree, every bough glittering with golden apples.
As soon as I smelled their fragrance, I knew that one bite would be the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted.
I wanted to step right up and pluck one, except for the dragon coiled around the tree.
Now, I don't know what you think of when I say dragon. Whatever it is, it's not scary enough. The serpent's body was as thick as a booster rocket, glinting with coppery scales. He had more heads than I could count, as if a hundred deadly pythons had been fused together.
He appeared to be asleep. The heads lay curled in a big spaghetti-like mound on the grass, all the eyes closed.
Then the shadows in front of me began to move. There was a beautiful, eerie singing, like voices from the bottom of a well.
Four figures shimmered into existence, four young women, all wearing white Greek chitons. Their skin was like caramel. Silky black hair tumbled loose around their shoulders. They were gorgeous, and, like their father could be, very dangerous.
"What are you doing in our garden mortal?" asked one.
I raised an eyebrow: "You mean Queen Hera's garden, don't you?"
I wasn't sure, but the slight darkening of her cheeks told me she was embarrassed by my answer.
"Answer her question!" Thundered another, even if her voice was more like the sweetness of honey than the rumble of thunder. She expected to be obeyed, and so I acquiesced her request.
"Taking a stroll." I grinned: "And Atlas told the truth, her daughters truly are more beautiful than the sunset they incarnate." I dipped my head slowly.
"Do not lie!" Hissed the third: "We can tell someone has been sent to steal from us."
"Well, it's not really my quest, and I don't really care about immortality right now, I'd prefer to hit 25 or something like that before stopping aging." I shrugged, acutely conscious of the sack on my shoulders: "And again, you are only caretakers of the Garden, it's not yours, so I would be stealing from the queen."
Number Three hissed in displeasure, her cheeks darkening like her first sister's ones.
"Then why would you come here?" The fourth asked quietly.
"I wanted to chat with Atlas, to hear if the stories were true." I answered.
When they stared impassively at me, I grinned mischievously.
"Honestly, I also wanted to meet the fabled nymphs of the sunset." And I lifted the canteen I had strapped at my waist: "I brought wine, and I thought we could have fun, you must have missed a lot of things, being cooped here for thousands of years."
"I don't believe you." Said one.
"Like all the others, you want to steal a golden apple." Said another.
I snorted: "I know Ladon dearest has been put here by the Queen of the gods in order to keep you from stealing apples."
I grinned, and sat down in the clearing: "I hoped to find a way to relieve some of your boredom."
"So you are here as a vanguard, to clean the way to other silly demigods?" One asked.
"Fools that dare attempt to take what cannot be taken by mortal hand?" asked another.
The third one simply gazed at me with eyes that spoke of nightshade, of dusk, of the end of the domain of men. There was something... in her posture, I decided. She was less guarded, likely because she believed Ladon would eat me sooner or later, or because she had caught on what my presence there meant.
I reached inside my pocket and took out a single golden apple, feeling it thrumming with everything, whispering promises to my senses, singing to my blood, begging to be eaten.
My mind cut through the compulsion, rooting myself into place, and I turned to watch the Hesperids, finding tiny differences among them and trying to figure out who was who.
Chrysothemis, was likely the most stuck up of the four, Asterope was the one on my left, given how her face seemed to almost sparkle, Hygieia on my right, and Lipara was the one closest to me, given thst her hips looked slightly larger than her sisters'.
"I held the sky while your father came here, I'm very sore, I thought we could relax together, and share this beauty." even if I had no intention of eating it, it was too soon for me to tackle immortality.
And just like that, it was like I had flipped a switch, their animosity vanished, and their eyes turned hungry.
"You held the sky for all that time?"
"You are very strong for a mortal."
"It's been a long time since we last talked with father."
"There is a pond where we can wash your tiredness away."
At the end of the day, I had left Half Blood camp in order to spite Luke and complete his quest before him. I had succeeded, only having to channel my inner Heat Ledger Joker and hold up the sky for a whole night.
Even if I did it more because I could than for any kind of actual necessity.
At this point, like hell I wasn't trying to bang the nypmhs.
Chapter 8: Another Task
21 July 2000
I had never been very self conscious, but even if I had been, such a character flaw would have been literally stripped away from me very fast.
Four days of heaven. That was the only way I could use to describe what had happened to me. I felt the tyrsus disguised as a cork necklace rest heavy on my chest, it was my only item of clothing, and thanks to that, Dionysus had become my favourite deity.
Seconds didn't pass in the garden, it was always dusk, and I measured time through the cycles of hunger and 'sleep' with the Hesperids.
Or, I would have, if I hadn't drunk myself into a stupor with the immortal beauties whom I had gifted an apple to. I fed on fruits and beauty, bathing in a warm natural source of water and rolling with them over the lush grass.
I had left my clothes with my backpack and the pruned branch of the Golden Apple Tree near the hedges, some part of my mind knew that I could leave the garden only at dusk. But the dusk of the mortal world wasn't something I could be aware of while staying in the garden. Frankly, I knew that Thalia and Luke were to arrive sooner or later, and soI had enjoyed my vacation.
They would arrive in four days. For me, time had lost any meaning, it felt like weeks had passed since I held the sky, and I remember seeing Chrysothemis pruning hedges and trees, Asterope giving new life to the plants that dared shine a tiny bit less than they could.
There was a subtle song going around, made of whispers and promises and shifting colors and stretching shadows. It was the voice of the garden itself, no scratch that, it was the voice of the magic permeating the air, of the intent of the Hesperids of taking care of it.
Hygieia enjoyed plucking the fruits from trees or bushes, we dined on them, feeding each other, while Lipara was the one to plant new flowers. From where she took the seeds, I had no idea.
I had seen each of them occasionally sing to Ladon, to keep him appeased, even if he looked nervous anytime they came too close. And by nervous, I meant that more than half of his heads were awake and looking atround.
It had the effect of making me nervous. A lot. Ladon was the unholy son of Typhon and Echidna, and it was a being of nightmares. I stood as far from the tree as I could, and I fuzzly remember the nymphs of sunset laughing at me. I remember laughing too.
After ages, or barely a few hours since I started drinking with them, I felt something at the edges of my memory. I opened my eyes and saw trees stretched against the eternal dusk.
But while the sky felt right, a part of me recognized that it had no right to be, something was amiss. I missed seeing the moon, and Atlas' daughters deserved at least a casual 'hello'. With the stars hidden, I simply couldn't.
The tall and lush grass was all around me, while a few feet away Liparia was resting, her naked body loosely splayed in sleep.
She looked smooth and perfect as a sculpture. She sighed in her sleep, and I chided myself for the thought. I knew she was nothing like cold stone. She was warm and supple, the smoothest marble grindstone by comparison, and the caramel color of her skin was of a beauty beyond human.
I blinked. Beyond human. I repeated the thought to myself, and I started recollecting the strands of my psyche.
My hand reached out to touch her, but I stopped myself, not wanting to disturb the perfect scene before me and being grateful for every second that I could dedicate to find again my thoughts.
In my pride and carelessness, I had forgotten an old truth: Do not trust the appearances.
Yes, the Hesperids were beautiful and harmless, Ladon would kill only those who dared take from the tree, there were no poisons in the air or in the water, the wine was a gift from Dionysus... in other words, there were no direct threats to my life.
And like an idiot I didn't consider that everything can potentially kill me. I realized.
It was understandable, I had been on a high since holding the sky...
...holding the sky? What the fuck?
My mind was in disarray, I couldn't exactly remember... Icarus, my name is Icarus.
My thoughts slowly regained their previous sharpness.
Lipari's lips parted and sighed, making a sound like a dove. I remembered the touch of those lips. I ached, and forced myself to look away from her soft, flower-petal mouth.
Her closed eyelids were patterned like a butterfly's wings, swept in whorls of deep purple and black with traceries of pale gold that blended to the caramel color of her skin. The shadows on her features were soft like velvet, promising rest, reminding me that she wasn't human. As her eyes moved gently in sleep, the shadowy pattern shifted, as if the butterfly fanned its wings.
I ate her with my eyes, knowing that I should quit while I was ahead.
Something in my mind screamed at me, but I was bemused by the motion of her eyes beneath her lids, the shape her mouth made, as if she would kiss me even while she slept.
I was going to go mad, or die.
The idea finally fought its way through to my conscious mind, and I felt every hair on my body stand suddenly on end. I had a moment of perfect, clear lucidity that resembled coming up for air and quickly closed my eyes.
I had seen immortals before, I had seen her and her sisters as soon as I stepped into Hera's garden, and my mind didn't fall under the captivating appearences.
But it wasn't that, or better, not just that. I was seeing more. The four Hesperids didn't look so captivating before our shared edonism...
Behind my eyes, the Hesperid distracted me. The sweet breath. The soft breast. The urgent half-despairing sighs that slipped through hungry, petal-tender lips..
I don't doubt for a second that it had, quite naturally, deprived men of their faculties in the past. I, however, knew myself to be quite sane. Or at the very least, I knew that I was the only one to direct my thoughts. Madness had come to play with me with my chat with Atlas, I had started pretending, but soon I had found myself ensnared in my own web. It was something worthy of future investigation.
I briefly entertained the notion that I was insane and didn't know it. Then I considered the possibility that I had always been insane, acknowledged it as more likely than the former, then pushed both thoughts from my mind, reminding to myself that until my madness brought me to try to fly into the fucking sun with wings made of wax, I could deal with it.
But why did my mind return to me only in that moment? Why not before? Why not later? Then I felt it, a subtle shift in the air, a ripple in the magic of the garden, a change in the quality of the light I had grown used to.
Lipari's light frown made clear that she felt the same. I looked around, taking notice of the passed out nymphs around me while I rose from the ground and walked away.
Dionysus, thank you. I was grateful, for the wine, over which I had bonded with Atlas and thanks to which I had disabled the first alarm system of the garden. I was thankful because of the slight madness that had allowed me to accomplish great things like holding the sky and shagging four nymphs.
I had the feeling I had forgotten something, but it didn't come to mind, and I knew that trying to remember wouldn't make it come up any time sooner. I shrugged, What will be, will be. I thought briefly.
I didn't know how did I manage to be so attuned to the magic in the garden, either because of my blood, for the long period of time that I had spent in there, for what I had shared with the nymphs, but what I had felt the first time I walked on the lush, magic grass, paled in comparison to what I was able to understand now.
I could feel the constant breathing of the plants and the ever working fatigue of their roots, my eyes naturally landed on the ripest fruit. In the same ethereal, not explainable, complex, mysterious way, now that I had somehow regained all of my faculties, the sky unnerved me.
I didn't feel excedingly powerful, or suddenly donned with a new undeniable right to rewrite the laws of reality, I was still myself, only... more aware.
The celestial sphere went from the golden pink of the west to the dark purple of the east, the shades were undeniably beautiful, even charming, but I wanted to see the sky that I had held, not a single state of it.
Suddenly, I came to realize that I was in a cage, one without walls, without bars, and worst of all: without reasons to leave.
But I have to. I reminded myself. I didn't need to leave. I want to. The world was big and mysterious, things to see, things to do, knowledge to steal, to earn, battles to be fought, enemies to be turned into friends, friends to turn into brothers, fates to break, gods and immortals to annoy.
"I am free." I whispered to myself what I realized was my first truth, my first commandment, the first brick of the foundation that was my identity.
Whatever half wish to stay back with Lipari, Hygieia, Chrysothemis and Asterope whitered away in my mind. I regained control of my thoughts and walked away from the sleeping nymphs, wary of waking them.
I shook my head, my memories were slow to return, and with a grimace I remembered offering my only apple to the nymphs in order to... well, it had been a blatant conversation starter to reach the manly purpose of having sex. I was... conflicted.
I wasn't exactly hating my lust, since I didn't regret what was likely the best experience of my life so far, but Hades, maybe I could have kept for my lonesome self a single slice?
No use thinking about it now. I reminded myself, walking toward the disturbance I had felt at the edges of my perception.
I ducked under branches and weaved through flowerbeds, ignoring the path made of flat fluvial stones. I didn't wrap myself in Mist, it was unnecessary, the garden knew me and somehow it aquiesced my need for beeing unseen, likely knowing that I wasn't sneaking around in order to steal.
It says something about my life that I manage to think that a garden knows my intentions with a straight face. I noted dryly.
After several minutes, I reached the origin of the disturbance, and seeing the cause, I let out the breath I had been holding and stepped out from among the trees a big grin plastered on my face.
"Icarus!" Thalia called me first.
I waved my hand: "Yo!"
"You're here! Why would you be here?" Luke sounded tired.
"You're naked!" Thalia accused me at the same time.
"Oh, yeah, that too."
"Put something on!" she ordered me, blushing scarlet, but I noticed that she didn't turn around and kept looking at me.
I nodded, recognizing the validity of her request, and walked to the hedge, finding the bundle of clothes that I had thoughtfully left near the exit.
Where are my backpack and the pruned branch of the tree? I frowned, something was itching at the edge of my thoughts. I remembered working on the wood, and I remembered using it as a aid to walk after the crucible that holding the sky had been.
I scratched my head while looking around. Maybe is near another part of the hedge? I wondered and started walking clockwise, my eyes scanning my surroundings.
A hand clamped on my shoulder: "What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" Luke bit out, Thalia was looking at me expectantly.
"Looking for my stuff." I answered blankly.
"So you didn't somehow find a way to precede us to the location where we have to complete our quest?" Thalia sounded sarcastic.
"Luke's quest." I answered without thinking about it. Courious, the hedges behave almost like smoke. I wonder, if I hop through will I find myself in the Mount Talampais Reserve?
I kept walking, the other two demigods following me: "Well, I clearly won the race to this place, but like Luke loves repeating, it's your quest, I wasn't invited, was I?"
The son of Hermes snarled something and stomped into the garden, his eyes blind to the beauty of the place,leaving Thalia alone to deal with my passive-aggressive snark.
"So you're not helping us?" She asked sardonically.
She already knew my answer, and that helping wasn't the point.
"I hope Luke has enough sense as to not awaken anybody, the nymphs are KO, so they won't rise the alarm, but dragging on yourself the ire of the dragon is suicide." I continued walking, sad for the absence of the branch, which was arguably a priceless treasure almost on par with the apples.
"It's not our first rodeo, you know." She rolled her eyes: "What are you looking for?"
"My stuff." I answered non committally.
"And why should your stuff be along the edge of the Garden? No, scratch that, why were you naked in the first place?"
I knowingly ignored her question and she smacked my head. Not happy with the result, she zapped me.
"Oi!" I protested "Why would you do that?!"
"Because you disappeared without saying anything to anyone, dumbass! And don't ignore my question!" her tone had turned somewhat steely, and I felt her trying to exercise some kind of authority over me. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow, noticing that she hadn't even done it on purpose, and my mind shrugged off her command effortlessly. I am free.
"I K. the nymphs." I answered, letting her find her own answers.
Since I was still walking the edge of the Garden and I wasn't looking at her, I couldn't see her expression. Even so, her baffled face made a clear jump to the forefront of my mind. I could almost see her brain trying to link KO nymphs with my being naked, and failing at it repeatedly.
Then in her head it clicked, and she was reduced to a spluttering mess for a couple of seconds, before pulling herself back together: "Yes, comic relief so harsh that has them laughing into uncounsciousness." she tried to tease me.
"I saw you staring before, trying to downplay your reaction is futile..." I teased over my shoulder, ready to give up my search.
I earned myself another zap. "Yow! Fucking Hades, Sparkles, contain your lust!"
I had turned to face her by then, with a playful smirk on my face and the admittedly inflated ego of a sixteen years old who had just finished a 4 days long sex marathon (even if I was counting the numerous occasions in which I remembered doing other stuff in it).
Before she could school the blushing outrage that proudly danced on her face, a nightmarish choir of horror cut whatever levity we were having.
GROOKKRAGRORR
It wasn't a roar, oh no, neither a thunder or a rockslide. It wasn't even an earthquake, Hades, I was dreaming of hurricanes and tsunami. But the reality was much worse.
The ground shook and the air thundered, suddenly turning heavy and oppressive, above the canopy of the garden, I saw a flowing glint of scales, my ears too busy with the chours of hissing rumbling to hear what Thalia was saying.
Ladon sounded pissed. Or just awake: it was a horrible situation either way.
Thalia and I shot through the well cared for trees and flowerpots, our feet skipping us from a flat stone to another in order to not waste momentum against the slightly damp ground. My hand instinctively brought out the dagger that I had used to freak out Atlas from the sheat where it was secured.
Thalia's shield blared to life and her spear was crackling with the promise of lightning by the time we reached the center of the garden. The tree stood uncaringly, the wound caused by the relatively small branch Atlas had ripped away was still glistening with golden resin, and I distractedly wondered if it was akin to ichor.
On the other side of the clearing, Lipari, Hygieia, Chrysothemis and Asterope were standing with expression that cycled from outraged to amused. Thankfully, they were dressed, and as such I managed to bring my eyes back to the more important detail of Luke giving proof of his extraordinary prowess in dodging. His sword flashed from time to time, but only to redirect a bite.
It was extraordinary, the sheer momentum the son of Hermes was keeping up to be able to do so had to be staggering, coupled with the speed through which he kept rolling, jumping running and sweeping, it was beyond what I ever imagined him capable of.
The worring part, was that neither Thalia nor I were the kind of fighter that never got hit. She with her shield, and I with my stubborness, we both used tanking the enemy's blows as an opening, and from how she was grinding her teeth together, she realized it immediately.
My knife was returned to its sheat and the Mist rolled over the monster who was still sporting several bruises and cuts gifted to him by Atlas.
Say what you want, but the old fucker hits the hardest. I grinned, recognizing the might of my... acquitance.
Soon enough, incorporeal images of Luke started to weave their way through each other, the original son of Hermes, and the heads of Ladon.
Following my lead, Thalia had turned her attention to the sky, which had clouded, despite the constant that was the eternal dusk we were fighting in.
"We need to leave before the sunset outside ends, or we'll be trapped with four pissed nymphs and the most horrible thing since Steve Buscemi." I rattled off to Thalia, referring to Ladon. She took a moment to consciously ignore the comparison before sighing in agreement.
"Our plan was a dash and run either way." She muttered.
Random sounds of things that weren't there started echoing across the clearing, courtesy of one of my newest tricks, while I bit down on my tongue to avoid cursing the sheer stupidity of them both.
Feeling my discomfort and sheer disgust, she amended: "Well, my plan to shot an arrow to rip an apple off was discarded for wathever reason."
"Apples explode when hit by an arrow." I deadpanned. Unless this world is a crossover with Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
The sudden lightning blinded me for a moment and then the thunder drowned Thalia's answer. If not for her blush, I would have deemed the timing a coincidence.
"Luke!" She shouted as soon as the thunder faded, "We need to run, we'll try again, but we need to go!"
That had the unfortunate consequence of placing us in the same league of the thief in the eyes of Ladon.
While its serpentine body was still coiled around the trunk of the apple tree, its heads were placed on top of very long and strong necks, and as such both me and Thalia had to throw ourselves aside when like twenty deadly dragon heads started biting off the ground where we had stood not a second before.
We ran around the clearing, mirroring each other, Thalia using her shield to great effect to stall the beast when it came too close, and I weaving illusions to take my place while my body turned invisible. Somehow, at least five pf Ladon's heads kept following me around, if because of luck or because they knew my general position, I didn't know.
Somehow, in all the madness that an enraged Ladon was, we managed to regroup at the edge of the clearing.
Unfortunately, we were still in range of the scaly motherfucker, who fell on us like a landslide.
I jumped over a head that had lunged to eat me holding my breath, avoiding the poisonous exhalations from the deadly mouths eager to swallow me whole while I slid under another, the sheer terror I was feeling battling with the exhilaration that simply staying alive was filling me with.
My knife had been tailor made by the Aephestus' kids: I had no idea how, but they had managed to make blend of steel and celestial bronze, and while its effectiveness against monsters was greatly reduced, I could use it to skin the animals I occasionally hunted in the forest around my secret lair. It had a saw section on the edge, a long blade and a curved point. A glorified butcher's knife, nothing more, but it could cut small branches as well as ropes. It was a multi purpose knife, and in the madness that I was experimenting, I found out that it could penetrate wonderfully between a scale amd the next, briefly giving me an anchor of sorts on a neck that I found myself riding.
I dodged, spun and jumped. I pushed off Luke that used the momentum I gave him to bury his word into a gleaming, hungry eye, causing the head holding it to reel back in pain, effectively stopping several other heads from swarming us.
Academically, I knew that Ladon had one hundred heads and that there was no way in hell they could all fit around us, since each one was at least as big as a minivan.
And yet at least 85% of his heads fit perfectly around us.
Thalia managed to occasionally stall a single head with her shield, while her spear kept calling on lightnings that she freely shared with the scaly motherfucker intent on killing us. Luke and I were more or less accessories to her awesomeness, even in those moments, I could recognize it without shame.
My tricks with tbe Mist were useful, but they were just that, tricks, and Luke was noticeably slower than before: he was starting to grow tired. Thalia was the one doing the lion's share of the 'keeping us alive': both attracting Ladon's attention and proving herself tough enough to require several dozen heads to work together.
Our fight for survival found a balance of sorts, with Luke and I supporting the daughter of Zeus, who started to call the shots: "Let's retreat, but keep your backs toward the edge of the clearing!"
There was neither time nor reason to discuss her orders, so we started retreating, flashes oflightning and Thalia's shield as our cover.
I was focused on avoiding dying, so my eyes couldn't follow the other two demigods' movements, but suddenly, I heard a slam. Luke was hurled over my head and slammed against a tree.
"Luke!" Thalia called, but there was no answer. At least he was tossed in the right direction. I considered.
I managed to find a way back to the slumped body of the demigod, accurately avoiding the several extremely deadly attacks of Ladon. Could I have punched the dragon with the sane strenght that allowed me to hold the sky? Maybe. But a life and death situation wasn't the place to experiment with the possible applications of my newfound will. In any case, I doubted it: holding the sky had been a confrontation between my identity and the latent desire of Ouranos. My will had overcome, for a time, the distracted, half-hearted wish of the sky to fall. Punching had nothing to do with testing my will, and as such, I would probably only end up hurting myself.
Or I could pull a Nepero from HunterXHunter... My mind distractedly offered while I took the uncounscious form of Luke over my shoulders.
"Thalia! We need to..." I started to call her back when...
KRABOOM
Like when we first arrived at the camp half blood, the world had gone white for an istant before my ears started hating me.
This time however, I wasn't facing Thalia when she broke the sky apart, thusly keeping my sight. A tug on my shoulder later, I found myself running at her side towards the black marble path that led to our exit.
For roughly two minutes, we half dragged, half pushed oureselves: Thalia busy covering our asses with a veritable lightning storm I wasn't aware she could summon, I busy holding Luke and twisting the Mist in order to confound Ladon as much as I could.
By then, I was dead on my feet, and I could barely recognize the patch of grass in front of me from the one behind, but Thalia must have kept us in the right direction, because soon enough, the air lost its shimmer, the grass stopped singing, the leaves stopped whispering, and the world felt... dimmer.
My heart clenched in sorrow at the loss, before my mind actually started working again and I slumped in relief. I let Luke fall down from my shoulders and started looking around, noticing with mild surprise that we were close to one of touristic point of access of the Mount Tamalpais State Park, just behind a few trees, a position secluded enough to not grab the attention of a tourist.
I eyed my rescuers-companions critically, ascertaining their wounds. I hoped to find none.
Luke was still K.O., but beyond a bump on his head, he looked fine, he wasn't pale nor he was losing blood, so it was fine. Thalia was panting, her back against a trunk, her shield folded back and her collapsable spear held tight in her right hand, her black hair slick with sweat, a bloodied grin on her face...
Bloodied? I stopped, paling dramatically when she spat a glob of blood on the side.
"Shit." she cursed, while I ran at her side: inspecting her closely. The only open wound that I could spot was a deep gnash on her right thigh, sign of her only mistake. But why is she spitting blood then?
"Don't go all mother hen on me, it's only a scratch." She protested against my examination, opening a leather pouch and popping down an ambrosia cube.
"Thalia, why the fuck would you spit blood if the wound is on your leg?" She wasn't taking notice of the situation's seriousness.
"It was the side of the tooth, he didn't manage to bite me, only cut with the unbelievably sharp side of the fang." She rolled her eyes: "And another head skull bashed me, nothing to worry about."
Spitting blood is plenty to worry about. I tied quickly a bandage on her most grevious wound, and without further fanfare, I checked again Luke, who was still busy enjoying Morpheus' realm.
Thalia passed me a small vial of nectar, that I forced him to swallow, massaging his neck to make sure he would not suffocate: "Why do you think he charged without thinking?" I asked Thalia, who shrugged, busy trying to stand.
"He needs to grow up." she replied almost grimly, and then, she chose that exact moment to fall back to the ground, her eyes fluttering, like she was trying to force them open.
I flung myself to her side holding her head while I checked for other injuries: "Thalia? What happened!?" I touched her forehead and bristled when I felt it burning with fever. Caught by a sudden doubt, I undid the bandage on her leg, finding it sizzling.
"One hundred venomous heads of dragon, obviously." I breathed out.
Exactly when I had started to relax, everything went to shit. Classic.
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