Hermes | Book 1

: 35 :

Dark is but the years that passed,
a tune that touched your soul,
Light is but your unruly thoughts,
a song that made you whole,
Death is but a symphony,
Of Life and nothing else,
And Time must be a mother's womb,
a mystery in itself.

Chapter 35

"HEY, ATHENA," he said as casually as he could.

"Hello, Hermes." She said in an equally even tone.

"Do you want to hear about a concealer I made?"

_

She was running.

Her muscles were threatening to burn up, her heart seemed to have burst out of her rib cage and her hair whipped all over her face, but she did not stop.

-

"What about it," said Athena, glancing at his thumb that he showed her. It took her a second to see the device that was camouflaged against his skin.

"You know about concealers right?"

Athena nodded, being drawn into Hermes's effortless charm. "Well, these are those, but with some super fantastic modifications by yours truly."

"And what are those modifications?" She asked, looking harder at the device.

Gently, Hermes pulled the concealer from the pads of his thumb, and showed it to Athena. She leaned in closer, looking at the tiny object with fascination.

Unlike the concealers she  had previously seen or heard about, this was far far thinner and smaller.

"You see this little thing here?" Using his right forefinger's nail, he slowly touched the part. Then he jabbed it with a sudden force, making Athena jump back. But instead of breaking into two, a part of his nail disappeared cleanly underneath it. Hermes pushed it up and Athena heard a small click sound.

Then Hermes went missing.

-

She was climbing a flight of stairs now, tripping all the while. Asta didn't mind though, for saving Hermes, she would do it a million times over.

_

"Cool isn't it?" Hermes reappeared again and looked at the shamelessly gawking Athena with a hint of pride in his voice.

"What else can it do?" She asked, not daring to take her eyes away.

"Communication." He said proudly. "If I attach a similar object to another person I can easily communicate with the help of just my voice from any part of the universe."

-

She was in that closet behind the kitchen where they had deposited their bags before heading to breakfast. Throwing open the door, she nearly cried in relief when she saw his familiar messenger bag and finally stopped in front of it.

"Thank the Gods, thank the Gods," she chokingly whispered and opened the expensive looking bag without the slightest hint of gentleness. There were more compartments that she had expected and Asta rummaged for a solid ten seconds before she saw her green bag and then another five seconds before she found the tiny metal box complete with the seal of the Alpha.

Throwing it open she finally saw what she was looking for.

Actual tears flowed without a stop from her eye as she slowly pulled out the tiny skin colored concealer.

Wiping her eye with the back of her hand, she rubbed her right thumb and then stuck the device on it. A slight feeling of discomfort at the beginning, then all was normal again.

Trying not to let the tears block her vision, she pushed a nail into the exact slot and laughed as it went in exactly as it did that day when she had done it in the glade. The device was not hers in the first place, but Asta was glad she had it with her.

-

"You've already attached it to someone haven't you?" Athena asked.

Hermes looked shocked, then grinned sheepishly.

"Who?" Athena asked, genuinely curious.

"Aphrodite."

-

Pushing her finger up, she heard the click and the air grew a little warmer around her. But this was not it. She pushed again, this time forward and then abruptly yanked it upwards.

A tiny current of shock jolted through her, and then a Asta's consciousness touched something. Something vast, terrifying and- and someplace where all consciousness thought was locked away into a corner for emptiness to reign.

But Asta smiled.

"Aphrodite," she whispered and felt the shock like it as her own from somewhere else.

"Who-what-what is this?" Hermes was a genius. The voice was so clear that Asta could actually imagine her speaking in front of her.

"Please don't panic,Lady Aphrodite. This is a friend of Hermes."

Panic, utter chaos and confusion made her own sanity buckle at its knees. Asta was loosing control faster than she could process. Maybe it was a bad idea, everything she had done so far seemed like a mistake anyway.

A sudden image of Dionysus in his blue suit and white flower crown lazing against a wall flashed in her mind.

Gritting her teeth, Asta sank against the wall of the closet and finally opened her chaotic mind to Aphorodite on the other line. It took several agonizing seconds before Aphrodite spoke, in a shakily but calmer voice.

"How do you know about the concealer?"

"I am a friend of Hermes, Lady Aphrodite and I would like to say that he is in grave danger."

"And how to I believe you?"

Asta had expected this, expected this since the time Charlie's bestowed he last kiss and left her to take Hermes away. Her mind had worked up too many theories and they all led to one solution.

The mind was a fragile object and to manipulate it so thoroughly and so many times had left it vulnerable. The funny thing about it was that the more you pushed it to forget it tried to remember.

Asta had time for just one trigger that could unlock enough of Aphrodite's memories to cooperate with her. This was another game of chance and Asta looked towards the direction of hope once more, praying the odds were in her favor this time round.

Bracing herself, she said softly, but strongly in perfect Greek. "Seneca, it's me Asta."