The Battle of Olympus | III

18. I Learn My Destiny

WARNING: BRING THE TISSUES! I think you guys can guess what happens in this chapter from that warning. Which is strange, considering how cheesy the last chapter was.

Also this chapter is like a million words long oh my god.

Also, I graduated today! I unfortunately didn't finish this trilogy before I did, but close enough, right? ... right?

I didn't get my nap, but it wasn't like I had time to worry about that.

"Amara's gone," was the first words that greeted Apollo and I when we appeared in a flash in his manor.

Apollo went rigid, his hand falling from mine, as I repeated, "Amara's gone?"

Ares nodded. "I don't know how—Father told me to ask her what she knew but when I went over she was gone—"

"Get out," Apollo snapped.

"Apollo—"

"Ares, if you don't get out, I'm going to scream."

The war god didn't need to be told twice. In an instant, he was gone, leaving me alone with a fuming sun god. Despite my rocky meeting with Ares, I found myself almost missing his presence when I thought of how nasty Apollo's infamous temper could become.

"Where would she have gone?" he muttered wildly. "She—Delphi? But—" His eyes snapped to mine. "Eden, stay here. Well, Olympus, not in my house, but whatever. I need to talk to Athena. Don't do anything stupid."

And then he was gone, having dissolved into a golden shower, leaving me to grumble, "Thanks," and stumble my way out of his house.

I generally knew my way around the neighborhood, but not entirely well, so it was with a wave of relief that I saw Polyhymnia hurrying down the other side of the street.

"Polyhymnia!"

The muse stopped, glancing back in surprise, her features melting into that of a hesitant smile. "Hello, Eden."

Glancing both ways, I quickly crossed the street. "Sorry about this, but Apollo kind of just left to find Amara and I don't know this place well—"

"Oh," she said, cutting me off, "she's with me."

I stuttered to a stop, slowly swiveling around to stare at her. "She's... what?"

The goddess shrugged. "Well, not entirely, but she asked me to help get her off of Olympus. She had a theory, you see, but was insistent that I didn't come with her—she said my presence would be easily detected." She held out a hand, some sort of device rippling into existence in it. "If she were in trouble, she'd call me." Polyhymnia bit her lip. "She told me not to tell anyone else but you—she said Apollo would worry too much—but upon thinking of it more, I'm starting to wonder if this was such a good plan after all..."

"Where is she?"

"Alesia."

The world seemed to spin around me. "Alesia?"

"Alesia," Polyhymnia confirmed. "She seemed to think some sort of answer lied there—she wasn't being entirely clear."

"There's nothing there," I protested. "I mean, what could be there? Caesar and I burned it to the ground." I paused. "Well, not really, but you get what I mean. It was associated with my victory, not Claudius'; if anything, he might be at Lucania. Crushing Spartacus was his greatest victory, after all." I frowned. "I think. Not like we sat around chatting about stuff like that."

Polyhymnia shrugged. "I can send you down there, if you want. I didn't sense an overwhelming amount of chaos magic—you shouldn't be in any danger. Besides... I think Amara told me to ask you to follow her."