The Battle of Olympus | III

15. This Is Why We Don't Have Family Dinners

Okay so this is kind of plot-related? Ish? Get ready to want to throw something at your screen. :)

When I gazed upon the domus I had seen just a day before, I was hardly surprised to see it restored to its former glory, from before the gods had torn it down to punish me for my hubris. It looked brand new, as if someone had just finished recreating it, the broken stones uncracked and the roof uncaved, the garden once again lush and blooming.

The power that had once been gone for millennia after my fall was back again, humming in the domus' essence, but it felt... strange. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was something off about it. More... uncontrollable. More powerful. Chaos magic, with the chaos emphasized.

Just as I had predicted, Claudius had decided to make our old domus his new base. Not that it was a bad move—it had been far more grand and beautiful than even the palaces of the emperors of the Roman Empire, and it could've certainly rivaled manors of the modern era. I had no doubt that Claudius had modernized it too, judging from the lights in the garden.

The gurgling fountain seemed almost a slap in the face as I stepped closer to it. Claudius had never bothered fixing it after he had drowned Adonis in it, and I had had no desire to either. Besides, I had rarely ever been at home, preferring instead to stay far away from the source of my nightmares. But here it was, repaired after millennia, cheerfully spewing water. I almost half-wished I could destroy it again.

"The game's over, Claudius," I said.

Nobody responded. I hadn't expected him to.

"How many centuries has our family waged war? Are you not tired of it? We have lost everything to war, and here you are, ready to continue it again? Last time, it did not go so well—what makes you think it will this time? History may not repeat but it does rhyme, and those who do not learn will sing its next verse."

"And yet you think your precious gods are so much better?"

It wasn't Claudius, but I whirled around anyway.

"The Olympians are our nieces and nephews, but we hold no familial love for them like our mother." The man didn't get up from where he knelt, still studying the blooming plants. "When have they ever cared about us? Your beloved Apollo slayed my brother, Olympus the Second's, son, Marsys. Zeus trapped Typhon under my brother, Aitna, with no regard for his input. Our mother bade us not to protest, but do you understand what it's like to have gods challenge us deities? We have slept long, we have endured much, but I refuse to continue.

"The gods are nothing more than children playing with a power they do not yet understand; the Titans were cruel, as were the Giants, and I have no reason to wish them to rule, but the gods are just as vain and foolish. They think only of themselves and not for the betterment of all; they scorned your humanity until they realized they could make servants out of you. Tell me, daughter of chaos and death, why do you then still ally yourself with them? Every cruelty you have suffered is by their hand."

"That's not true," I managed, though I wasn't sure who I was trying to convince.

"No? Was it not your precious gods who started the Trojan War? Aphrodite who forced Helen to love Paris? Apollo who fell your beloved Patroclus and Achilles? Was it not Zeus who urged you and Alexander forth, Fortuna who tore you down, Athena who devised your fall, Thanatos who tore away your heart? Your gods are heartless, and they love you only when they can use you. They gave your family your gifts because it benefited them, but as soon as you became uncontrollable, they tore you down. You are a machine to them, nothing more."

"The gods may play me," I admitted, "but Claudius plays you. He offers you the chance to rebuild the world, but how can you? You want to start over from scratch to create a paradise, but who is to create it? Who is to deem what is right and what is wrong? How can you agree on values? Claudius is mad, and he does not see if he continues this path, he will be king of nothing but a dead empire."