Destiny Unbonded

Chapter 9

In the beginning, the spirits of men drifted aimless among the cosmos, adrift at the whims of Chaos. The Gods rescued them and formed vessels of flesh for them to inhabit. And the Gods saw this was good.

     - The Canon

[The Gods]

Leaning forward from the golden throne, Zeus glared at the two he called before the Court, tendrils of white-blue electricity danced from the tip of his staff, lighting up the Pantheon walls. He bellowed in thought-speech. "Well? What have you to say?"

Athena, standing beside Ares, stepped forward. "This matter was not one for the Court."

"All actions taken in the human realm are a matter for the Court!" Zeus shouted. "Three times have you both failed to stop this anomaly!"

"It was reasonable," Athena explained, "to presume the barriers in place within the Forbidden Lands would stop them. So they always have any encroachment."

Zeus jumped up, pounding his staff against the dais. "Until now! How is it they defeated our Siren? No mortal has ever resisted the song."

Athena grinned. "As you say, my King, it was reasonable to think the Siren would bring them to death. But one did resist, a third traveling with the anomaly and the rogue Moirai. See for yourself through the eyes of the Siren."

With a gesture, Athena activated the silver mirror to Zeus's right. The assembled Gods studied the moving images from the perspective of the Siren, showing a man and woman marching in a trance toward death at the cliff edge, as expected by the Siren's influence.

"Now, watch!" Athena pointed. The man and woman suddenly stopped, and the image spun around. With another hand motion, the image froze, showing a girl holding a crystal long-knife, raised against the Siren. "There! The girl, she broke the spell. The song had no effect on her."  

Murmurs broke up among the Gods. One said, "How can this be?" Another said, "Have the humans developed new abilities?"

Athena answered, "I know not what power this little one possesses." Motioning again to the mirror, she said, "There is more."

The images on the mirror restarted, this time showing the man charging the Siren with an obsidian knife, his face tightened in anger. Tendrils of darkness swirled around him. Then the image went blank.

Stilled silence spread among the assembled. Zeus sat down, putting a hand to his chin. "So, it is confirmed. He is of the Chaos." Zeus lifted his eyes. "Ares, you are unusually silent. What say you?"

Ares spun around to the other Gods. "You witnessed the danger we face. Our eyes do not see the one of Chaos across the realms, nor the other two when near him. But is there any doubt where they go? They must not learn the truth of the Ark, and they must not unravel the deception which sustains us!"

The Goddess Demeter pushed her way forward through the others, bowing before Zeus. "My King, all deceptions are ultimately fated to unravel. These humans are unruly by nature, more and more they defy the daily worship rituals we require, and they develop technology we wish them not to have. The Moirai cut the threads of the most grievous, but we will not hold them back forever. The culling required will soon exceed their reproduction rate, decreasing their numbers, and with that our Ambrosia."

"And what would you have us do?" shouted Ares, standing tall while thrusting himself between her and the throne. "Would you plunge us again into the darkness?"

Demeter stepped to the side, addressing Zeus. "There are other ways, my King. Once Order and Chaos existed in harmony, not as enemies. Let the humans evolve as they should and let us become worthy of their esteem."

Ares scowled, pushing Demeter aside. "Such is the sentiment of the weak! Fear will keep them in line. Let us cull the bright and the bold from among them and rebuild the herd again."

"Arrogant fool!" Demeter challenged Ares, drawing a crystal knife from a shoulder sheath. "Do you forget that our very existence in these forms comes from the humans?" She swung around to the other gathered Gods. "It is the unspoken truth that we are more dependent on them than they on us!"

In response, Ares snarled and drew his knife, pointing it at the Goddess. Zeus leaped up and slammed down his golden staff, the bang reverberating about the Pantheon and quieting the assembled. "Enough! I shall not allow precious Ambrosia to be spilled in pointless bicker!"

As Zeus glared, the Goddess Nemesis came up beside Ares, a crystal sword at her waist and a crystal quiver across her back. "My King, allow me to resolve the immediate issue, and then there shall be more than enough time for such boring debate."

"How so, Nemesis?"

"Send me to the Forbidden Lands and I shall slay these three, once and for all." The Goddess smiled. "I would welcome the hunt! More the challenge would they be."

Zeus nodded. "Very well. Go!"

"But I have not the energy reserves required to cross realms."

Zeus narrowed his crystal eyes at Ares and Athena. "Then take what Ambrosia you need from these two."