The Oracle of Tartarus [malexmale]

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

"Follow Xenon's advice," Noe said, quoting Callias's words, as we returned back to the sweltering heat of Tartarus, "How the hell are we supposed to follow his advice if we don't understand it?"

Of course, I said nothing. However, the gears were working in my mind as I tried to decipher the man's words. He told us to stop meddling with the Titans, but if we did that, they would eventually escape. They needed someone to be there to watch them. We'd had enough scares over the years and now they were getting stronger, somehow, someway. It was as if no matter how much grigora I stuffed into their meals, they still managed to elude us and the core of the problem was the spy that Xenon told us to ignore.

How could we ignore him if he was the source of the problem?

And Xenon hinted toward there being someone else behind the scenes causing mayham, but who and why?

Instinct was to immediately go out and search for the culprit, but how would I even go about starting such a task when Hades was piling work on me so fast that I barely had time to sort it out? I was running out of time and resources. Asking the Titans was useless and the more I thought about who it could be, the more I found myself running around in circles, which was useless.

"And what about Callias," Noe muttered as we made our way into the palace, escaping the thick humidity outside, "I can't believe someone like him would get that many people killed." I agreed, but then again, Callias wasn't much for sharing, even in facial expressions, which made it even more difficult to figure him out. Even after we were forced to leave by Apollo, Callias hadn't reacted when Apollo came to take him into his arms. Callias just let Apollo do what he wished, as if he truly didn't care for himself.

It was a weird situation, but none of our business, I concluded. It was between Xenon and Callias.

Right now, we had our own worries and that included the Titans.

"Are you sure we checked off everyone," Noe asked, looking up at me as we entered my office and I came to sit at the desk while Noe plopped down into a leather chair on the other side of the desk, "Maybe we missed someone. The servants?" I frowned thoughtfully, thinking back to the night Noe's first symptoms as an oracle begin. I remembered the servant who'd brought him his water that night, the small water daemon.

But could she have really done it?

No, I said as I opened up logs on the servants, scrolling down through the list. I did extensive background checks on all the servants that I had employed and none of them were related to Titans, but then again, words could lie. I typed a message out and turned my screen so that Noe could read it, his eyes scanning it before widening slightly. He shot to his feet.

"I'll call her in right now." He told me firmly. I nodded, watching him fly out of the room hurriedly before I turned back to my laptop, erasing the message as I frowned at the screen, looking at the servant's information. Her parents were listed as water daemons, both of whom were deceased. She didn't seem very suspicious, but I suppose that was the point of being a spy-- to wear the face of an innocent and harbor the soul of the devil.

I sighed warily, pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger. I heard a small beep sound and looked up at my laptop to see that I had received a message from Cerberus. I frowned curiously and opened the message.

Zelios,

Yo. I know you're probably swamped with the work Hades sent you, so you're probably too busy to pay attention to this email, but I wanted to apologize again for attacking you and Noe. I really didn't want to. You know that. And something in my gut tells me things are gonna get worse from here on out, so I apologize ahead of time for any stupid shit I do. If Hades didn't have me on a tight leash, I'd tell him to shove his orders in an uncomfortable orifice.