Awakening (Book One of the Eklektos Series)

Chapter Eleven

To escape the prying eyes, Tom dragged her towards the library he had pointed out earlier. When he suggested they go inside, Kali quickly agreed. She loved books anyway, but she would have gone almost anywhere to be away from the demigods staring openly at them.

He led her inside, into a high hallway with almost no light. The main room at the end opened out with grand archways and towering bookcases. It was a three-story building, but it was just one giant hall lined with mountains of bookshelves and the occasional ladders. There were some ledges that seemed for form a first and second floor, but the domed ceiling and the intricate chandelier that hung from it were in full view. Deep mahogany furniture was trimmed with deep green material and brass buttons throughout.

Stopping in the middle of the room, Kali gazed around her in wonder. Everything inside her went quiet, and she basked in the sheer grandeur and scale of it all. But stunned and amazed as she was, she was calm. This place was so peaceful. The only light came from the occasional hooded lantern and the grand fireplace. There were no windows, but there were skylights lining the ceiling, letting sunlight fill the library but for the long shadows cast by the ledges.

A hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her reverie and Tom laughed quietly. He rolled his eyes and whispered, "You didn't hear a word I just said, did you?"

Kali barely wanted to breathe in case she would break the eerie stillness, so she shook her head. He grinned again and nodded his head towards the door, moving before she had a chance to answer. She was reluctant to leave, but even more reluctant to speak so she let him pull her from the library without argument. When they were back outside, Kali glanced wistfully at the door, but Tom insisted "There's someone I want you to meet before I take you back to Chiron."

"What do you need to take me to Chiron for?" She asked apprehensively.

"Just a couple of assessments. Standard stuff."

"Oh." She said simply. "But I still don't know what we do here."

"Then you should have listened." He stuck his tongue out but relented at the scowl on her face. "Alright, so some of it is pretty normal. We do Psychology with Dionysus one week and Biochemistry the next. Apollo takes Music and then Healing. Then you have Artemis with Archery, and Tracking. Um...Cartography with Hermes, and Survival Skills. Things like that alternate every week to cover all the topics."

"Are there any that stay the same every week or do they all change?" Kali wondered aloud, worrying that she would lose track of where she was supposed to be. Even with the timetable, she knew she would find it hard to focus.

Tom grinned, knowing how scatterbrained she could be. "Ancient History with Zeus – though he never takes that himself." Kali tried and failed to keep the relief off her face and Tom laughed, before continuing "Ares does Weapons Training and Unarmed Combat in the Colosseum every week. Demeter does Horticulture; about plants and what they're good for. I never really followed that one, but I guess it could be interesting to some people. My mum does Maths and Strategems."

"Athena?"

"Of course." He grinned, clearly proud, and Kali smiled. Tom had always wanted to belong to something just as much as she had. It was nice that he had found that here.

"So," she prompted, "all the gods have a class?"

He nodded, putting his hands in the pockets of his tracksuit bottoms as they approached the fountain. "All the Olympians do, yeah. Even the Lord of the Underworld teaches the languages, but don't let that scare you off."

"Hades." She murmured, more to herself. Her wrist tingled slightly at the memory.

"One and the same. He's kind of intimidating but apparently most of the stories are made up." Tom smiled, unaware that Kali didn't need his reassurance.