Dear Secrets, Please Fly Quietly

19) Quarantine and Theories

I'm not stupid. I know in what order my priorities are in. I went to Delos and set up the island as a quarantine zone, leaving everyone to rest except Artemis. She was the worst patient and I needed to expose Hercules to the as much of the sickness as possible. Tired of physically moving from place to place, I opted to teleport to the Mediterranean Sea. Compared to the journey from New York to Delos, it was nothing, but I was agitated with the perpetually complaining gods.

'Hermes, I'm cold.'

'This blanket is too scratchy, Hermes!'

'My head, Hermes! It hurts!'

'Hermes!'

'Hermes!'

'HERMES!'

Needless to say, I was eager to get out of there and wanted to do so as fast as possible.

"Ahh!!" Artemis screamed upon arrival at Hercules' pillars. "Why did you-" She paused to cough. "That HURT!!!" Her voice was hoarse like she had been in a yelling match with an angry banshee. This was followed by more coughing.

"I'm leaving you here. With Herc-Man over there." Hercules had yet to even acknowledge our presence, his back to us and his head bowed. He could have been sleeping standing up for all I know.

Artemis shrieked something that was probably 'WHAT?!', but she had finally lost her voice completely. I teleported back to Delos after making sure Artemis knew to let me know if Hercules contracting anything.

Apollo was not pleased when I returned. "You left my-" He coughed. "-sister? With Hercules? To get him sick?!"

I shrugged indifferently. "Maybe it will work, maybe it won't."

Gritting his teeth, the god tried to set himself on fire. He managed a few quick sparks and gave up. "If I wasn't sick-"

"Ha! You admit it!"

His expression embodied the essence of boredom. "Shut up."

After making sure everyone was generally okay, I left for Olympus, hoping I didn't get whatever this sickness was. It needed an official name. I thought on it for a while, and couldn't come up with anything. I was still trying to come up with a name when Artemis contacted me via astral wolf, which brought back bad memories. The Sirius 3D constellation wolf-thing was back. Luckily, this time is was rather docile and barely moved. When it opened its starry jaws, Artemis' quiet voice came through. She told me it had been a full three hours of being around Hercules and nothing had happened except him getting angry, which was normal. I sighed and flopped onto my bed as the wolf dissolved into a wisp of smoke. Before I knew what was happening, I was asleep.

When I woke up, the sun was intensely beating down from the open window I had forgotten to close. Groaning, I stumbled out of my room and nearly killed myself falling onto solid marble floor. The perks of having a room basically in the roof with no tangible way to get down.

After I collected myself, I noticed a note from Athena on the floor. In neat handwriting, it read:

    Dear Hermes,

I regret to inform you Aphrodite, Ares, and I have all contracted this mysterious sickness and have quarantined ourselves at Delos. Apollo had returned from retrieving his sister Artemis, and seems very distraught that no one has made any signs of recovery in regard to the sickness. On a positive note, Apollo's leg injury is fully healed but Apollo himself is bed-ridden, as all of us are. Please come to Delos as soon as possible as the twins and I have found something that I think would peak your interest. Although, I must warn you, you won't like it.

Sincerely,

Athena

I came to Delos immediately, all tiredness gone. But nothing could prepare me for what was awaiting there.