"Theo."
I can't really see at first, then a picture comes into view. I'm in the courtyard of an enormous house. There's a pool in the middle, with two columns on either side. One is much bigger than the other. The whole courtyard is rundown, with leaves scattered everywhere, cracks in the cement, and not a soul in sight. The sky is cloudy and gray, really making the whole place look incredibly depressing.
"Theo!" A voice calls again, this time more urgently. I look around again, and see a figure in the smaller one of the columns.
When I approach, I see a woman in a black robe. She is quite beautiful beneath the hood of the robe.
"I've been trying to reach you for days." She sounds almost annoyed. "I shouldn't have had Hypnos allow you to guard your dreams so well."
"Hera?" The dots in my head finally connect. This is the dream Jason had mentioned. Hera, trapped in the spire. And she didn't reach out to me because she couldn't. A gift from Hypnos, to be able to open myself or close myself to the influence of dreams. It's one of those things I haven't really figured out yet.
"My dear, come here."
I approach the spire warily. I'm vaguely aware that it feels like I am wrapped in chains, and that my head is hurting again, but it feels so far away.
"I'm sorry I haven't warned you sooner," She notes, looking up at me from under her cape. "My power isn't strong enough to break through the wall you have up in your mind. This prison is draining me."
"You're a goddess." I shrug. "Why don't you just escape?"
She begins to glow, the air humming with a level of energy I've never felt before. It feels like all the energy I have bottled up inside is outside of me as well. When the magical glow dies, nothing has changed. "Some powers are even greater than the gods. I am not easily contained. But when the greater part of my essence is caught, it is like a foot in a bear trap, you might say. I can't escape, and I am concealed from the eyes of the other gods. Only you can find me, and I grow weaker by the day."
"Then why did you come here?" I ask. "How were you caught?"
She sighs. "I could not stay idle. Jupiter believes he can withdraw from the world, and thus lull our enemies back to sleep. He believes we Olympians have become too involved in the affairs of mortals, in the fates of our demigod children, especially since we agreed to claim them all after the war. He believes this is what caused our enemies to stir. That is why he closed Olympus."
"But you don't agree."
"No." She says. "Often I do not understand my husband's moods or his decisions, but even for Zeus, this seemed paranoid. I cannot fathom why he was so insistent and so convinced. It was... unlike him. As Hera, I am content to follow my Lord's wishes. But I am also Juno." She flickers for a moment, becoming a different woman with a goatskin cloak. It gives me the same feeling that Aquilon did. Uneasiness. "Juno Moneta they once called me- Juno, the one who warns. I was guardian of the state, patron of eternal Rome. I could not sit by while the descendants of my people were attacked. I sensed danger at this sacred spot-" She hesitates. "A voice told me I should come here. Gods do not have what you might call a conscience, nor do we have dreams; but the voice was like that- soft and persistent, warning me to come here. And so the same day Zeus closed Olympus, I slipped away without telling him my plans, so he could not stop me. And I came here to investigate-"
"It was a trap." I assume.
She nods. "Only too late did I realize how quickly the earth was stirring. I was even more foolish than Jupiter- a slave to my own impulses. This is exactly how it happened the first time. I was taken captive by the giants, and my imprisonment started a war. Now, our enemies rise again. The gods can only defeat them with the help of the greatest living heroes. And the one whom the giants serve... she cannot be defeated at all- only kept asleep."
