Chương 12: chapter 12
Olympia, Greece, 1973
"Ok guys. Stay near me and don't get lost" said Alice Jones, Gilderoy's Mother, as guided her family trough the ruins of Olympia.
"I was told it was around here" she said searching from something, till her eyes settled on two columns with a damaged trabeation on top of them.
The mother then took out her wand and prepared herself to cast the spell, while smiling at her daughters who were eager to see her do some magic.
This place is under a muggle-repelling charm, so no eyewitnesses were present and the woman could cast the spell without worries.
"Revelio" she said and a small fog appeared from her wand, covering the passage and after it dissipated away you could see that beyond the two column there was a lively settlement resembling an ancient Greek city in perfect condition.
"Just what ward can hide something like this? It is the same with Diagon Alley now that I think about it" muttered Gilderoy.
"This place doesn't exist on the map. It is under a powerful ward that makes sure that no one can notice it without entering through one of the official entries" explained the mother, who had heard her son question.
The architectures weren't tall, and their style was classical and stylish, but the construction that stood out the most was the imposing temple at the end of the main street.
"Yes, that's the temple you need to visit" said Allanon inside Gilderoy's mind.
"So that's Zeus temple, but you never told me why I should be able to find a body strengthening method inside the temple of a God?" asked Gilderoy as he walked together with his family trough the alley.
"Zeus belonged to our kind too, you know? Many of the Greek gods truly existed. They were very powerful people, who could achieve great feats and were revered by the non-magical kind as gods. Zeus was said to have the strongest body strengthening method, which, other than making his body incredibly powerful and fast, it also gave him the attribute of lighting. Before dying he decided to leave it behind in his temple" explained the old druid.
"Really? It sounds strange for such a powerful thing to be made public" though Gilderoy.
"Obviously there is a catch. Those people who were given the epithet of Greek gods were a strange bunch of weirdos with a stranger sense of humour. The technique he left behind is incomplete. Lighting is an element known for its power and speed and that is exactly the kind of power Zeus had. The problem is that the part he omitted to leave behind was the one for the mind. Many of those who tried to learn it became brain dead, while the others who survived with their reason intact were unable to use part of its power because they couldn't keep up with the speed they acquired. I was once approached by such a man to find a solution, but he died before I could complete it" said Allanon.
"So now that you completed it, it is safe, right?" asked the boy.
"Theoretically yes" replied the druid.
"So, you are planning to use your only disciple as a test subject? Have you gone mad, or you were like this from the start?" asked Gilderoy.
"Trust your teacher! I was the best expert of the mind in my time and if a horny brute man like Zeus could do it, then I'll do it too, and better!" Proclaimed the druid, although in his mind he was just eager to finally see if his theory that he created in his life truly worked or not.
"Can we go looking at the temple first? I heard that Zeus statue is made completely of gold and ivory" said Gilderoy in an exited way to convince his mother.
"Ok, we'll start from there then" said Alice, before leading the others in the right direction.
It didn't take long to reach the temple since wizarding settlements aren't that big because of how small wizarding population is, and the difficulty it would represent to cover an even bigger village with a ward as powerful as this.
"I can't believe I'm now looking at one of the seven wonders of the World, that was thought to be lost" muttered Gilderoy's father as he looked at the enormous statue that stood in front of them.
The imposing figure of Zeus sat on a throne decorated with precious gems.
Nike, the goddess of victory stood on his right hand, while with the other he was holding a sceptre on which was placed a golden eagle.
The statue was so realistic that it looked like the God could get up any moment, but that would have destroyed the temple, since the statue was so tall that the head nearly reached the rooftop.
Ivory and gold blended perfectly with each other creating a good contrast and the whole masterpiece was maintained so well that it still shined as if the statue was created just yesterday.
Gilderoy indeed felt envious of the man, who had been given all of this.
"Now, where do I need to look for the legacy of Zeus?" asked Gilderoy in his mind.
"You need to find one of the priestesses" stated Allanon, as if he was saying the most obvious thing in the world.
"And what does a priestess look like exactly?" asked again Gilderoy.
"A woman with a mantle, and since it is the temple of Zeus its colour should be either gold, white or light blue" replied the druid.
There was just one woman who fitted the description.
It was an old woman, who was standing on the side looking at the face of Zeus with concentration.
"Approach her and say exactly what I say" said Allanon to his young disciple.
"Mom I'm going to speak with the priestess a little" said Gilderoy.
"The priestess? I didn't know there was one…" said Alice, but the kid had already left and was approaching the old woman.
"I'll speak in ancient Greek, so don't worry about the meaning, just repeat what I say. Greeting, priestess of Zeus" as the old man spoke, the kid repeated the words he was saying perfectly thank to his mind arts, which allowed him to repeat perfectly what Allanon said. (Technically I studied a little of ancient Greek, but I suck at it. So just know that the things I'm writing in cursive are spoken in ancient Greek)
"You don't seem to be from here, but you know ancient Greek. You must be a little genius" she said and Gilderoy had no way to know that he was just complimented, but her smile let him know that she certainly said something nice.
"I'm not worthy of such a high praise" said Gilderoy, not meaning it, but luckily for Allanon the boy wasn't aware of what was being said.
"I would like to discuss more with you, but I'm here for a very important reason and I have little time. I want to take on the trial of the king of gods" added Gilderoy and the face of the priestess became astonished before a tear felt from one of her eyes.
"To think that at the end of my life I would have finally found someone, who wants to take on that challenge. Only I remained of the priestesses of Zeus, and I passed my whole life taking care of this temple. The mission to helps the challengers has been passed century after century, priestess after priestess, but since the last challenger visited the temple about one thousand years passed. I had decided to not take any new disciple to not force any other woman to waste their life waiting for something that will never happens, but to think that I would have gotten that chance now. Is this the gift the gods gave me for serving them my whole life?" said the older woman, while tears fell from her eyes as her face assumed a smile.
Gilderoy didn't know what to think about the strange behaviour of the woman, but the only thing he could do for now was to let Allanon lead the discussion.
"You do know that no one ever succeeded in this and that there are grave aftereffects in case of failure" added the older woman, who, while she was excited, still wanted to be sure that the little boy knew of the dangers, even if knowing them could make him change his mind.
After all a man true worth is shown when he decides to come forth even if the odds are against him.
Little did she know that Gilderoy couldn't understand her.
"I'm ready" Allanon wasn't that surprised that no one challenged this trial in years, even during his time, when just a few centuries had passed since the construction of the temple, the number of trial takers was already small, since the death rate was too high.
"What I'm going to do will be painful, but it is imperative that you bear with it if you want to see the writings left by Zeus, the king of gods" stated the old woman as she took out from her mantle a flask with the engraving of an eagle, who was grabbing a lighting with its claws.
"She said that it is going to be a little painful. Use your mind arts like I taught you to make sure that you don't squirm in pain or scream. You don't want your mother to notice something, right?" said Allanon and Gilderoy's mother was indeed looking in his direction.
"Squirm? Scream? What do you mean with little painf… MOTHER FUC**R" thought Gilderoy, before being interrupted by an atrocious amount of pain.
While Gilderoy was thinking, the priestess had wet her fingers with a special water, contained in the flask, made with a formula taught to her and passed down through centuries among the priestesses of this temple.
She then placed her fingers on Gilderoy eyes, and she used her magic to produce some small bolts of lightning that coursed trough the liquid on her fingers.
All that escaped from Gilderoy was a small twitch, which earned the admiration of the priest.
"It is done. You have ten minutes to look at the writings which have appeared at the base of the statue. If you need more time, we'll have to do this process again. Good luck" she said, using English for her last sentence.
"You knew English?" asked Gilderoy.
"Obviously I have a lived quite the long life and many visitors of the temple use other languages. So, I studied them to give a better service. Still, it was admirable for you to know ancient Greek, so I decided to communicate with that." She said with a smile.
"Don't waste your time. She said previously that you have to read the writing on the base of the statue in ten minutes or she'll have to electrify your eyes again" Gilderoy for the first time decided to not throw a come back to Allanon and just concentrated on his mission.
The base of the statue was taller than him and quite large too and the writing he could now see where engraved with a small character.
"Just how long is this thing?" asked Gilderoy.
"A body strengthening method isn't an easy thing. You need to learn various movements, how to let your magic circulate, many potions or alchemy recipes to boost your training and other things that may differ based on the method you train with. Use the spell I taught you to save the content in your mind perfectly. You'll then have time to read it slowly" Gilderoy followed Allanon word, although it took him some time to cover the whole base with this spell.
"I'm done" said Gilderoy.
"Good, I truly hope you'll be the one, who'll succeed in learning it. I'm sure you'll achieve greatness one day" said the old woman with a smile.
After exchanging some more words with her, Gilderoy reached again his mother.
"What did you speak with her?" asked the mother when Gilderoy got back.
"Some small talks, but she recognized my greatness" replied the boy with a proud smile.
"Yeah, my little boy will become famous and great." Said the mother and although it sounded obvious to the boy, he still liked to hear compliments.
(Sorry for the delay, but it took some time to get back to writing after the pause I had to take for the exams)
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