The God & The Shadow

Chapter 34

LORE

"Let's go."

"Go where?" Florens never looked up from her cauldron as she added more herbs into the mix. "I'm busy."

"Busy doing what exactly? Making soup?" Hermes goaded, closing the door behind him.

The goddess didn't relent. She grabbed a spoonful of the liquid and turned to grab Hermes' chin and shoved it down his throat. He sputtered some of it out, but she tipped his chin up and forced him to swallow it. Florens gave him a malevolent smile and went back to her alchemy.

I rolled my eyes and shifted in the corner. Whoever decided to give the Goddess of Witchcraft a cauldron had to seriously be dense. She could make this place blow in an instant with the right ingredients.

I stood and dusted my suit off. "What is it, Hermes?"

"Demitricus is calling a meeting in Olympus," Hermes looked around Florens' bedroom with his hands in his pockets. "Says it's important, or whatever."

"How did you get to Olympus?" Florens asked.

"Well, we can still travel between realms, just not within this realm. You get me?"

Flo snickered as she added another herb and started mixing with a wooden spoon over the boiling liquid. "Chances are its just a reason for your pompous brother's triumphant return to be celebrated, Lore."

It probably was. Demitricus always desired the spotlight, but it always seemed to favor me compared to him.

"Perhaps. However, I do not want Demitricus to go down here and catch wind of what we're dealing with," I moved to the goddess' work table, smelling and touching the ingredients next to her cauldron, "He does have a flare for the dramatic."

She seethed when I moved to touch a flower, slapping my hand away. I smiled at her bewildered reaction that screamed the intent to kill. Reminds me of someone.

"Please. You brothers all have the flare for the dramatic. Amongst you three, it's a good thing you disgust me the least." She waved her hand and the fire extinguished.

Hermes sighed loudly from behind me and made a noise that of an annoyed little child. "Can we just go? I'm pretty sure we're the only ones missing."

Florens grabbed a vial and ladle from the edge of the long wooden table and started pouring. The liquid shifted in the light, a vibrant red that shimmered and a faceted violet that remained at the bottom. That's new, I thought.

She threw the small bottle at Hermes that caught it without effort. "Fine. I'm just gonna change and we'll leave."

Leaving both of us in the room, I turned around to look at Hermes holding up the bottle in the direction of the sunlight streaming through the windows.

"Any effects yet?" I asked.

He looked at me and squinted his eyes. "I don't know. Not yet, I guess."

I moved back to the cauldron that was slowly draining its contents, the sides of it dry and cooling. "That's definitely reassuring." I sarcastically commented.