Godsforsaken

Chapter 52: Aviary

“So the traitor was using water miracles,” I said conversationally as we hopped our way to the next tholos on our list.

“He was,” Hermes agreed. “But I'm pretty sure I've never seen Poseidon wielding anything like that sword.”

I couldn't disagree there. Not only was Poseidon most known for his magnificent trident, the guy also seemed to look down on all other kinds of weapons. But at the same time...

“Wouldn't that make it the perfect cover though?” Selene asked. “If nobody expects it to be his, nobody would suspect him.”

“Fair point,” Hermes said.

“And I think we've pretty much ruled out the idea that it's just a minor river deity,” I said. “No minor deity would be able to slug Ares like that.”

“That leaves Oceanus, doesn't it?” Athena said.

Hermes swallowed audibly. “You aren't suggesting that this Holy Maiden riled up the Titans against us, are you?”

“That would be very bad,” Hestia said, her voice wavering a little.

“I think Hades would have noticed if all the Titans had escaped Tartarus at once,” I said but internally I was thinking something else entirely.

Most of the Titans had never struck me as too bad. Granted, that may have had something to do with my antipathy towards most of the Olympians but still. I had met several of them and none of them had been unpleasant to me. And evidently Hades agreed with my assessment because while they were technically locked up in Tartarus, the part of his Underworld reserved for sinners and evildoers, their accommodations were actually quite pleasant. They were even regularly allowed out of their prison, though only ever one at a time. The only one exempt from this was Cronus and I was fairly sure this was less because he was evil and more because Zeus on top of being a sex pest was also a vengeful bastard, as seen with Prometheus.

And while I could certainly see the Titans harboring more than their fair share of resentment for the way the Olympians had treated them I could not see any of them betraying the world for the Outsiders. But then again, Oceanus was a special case.

Most of the Titans were still in touch with their particular aspects of divinity. Rhea was still a goddess of motherhood. Gaia was still in touch with the earth. Themis still presided over the aspect of justice. Mnemosyne was still the safeguard of memories. But Oceanus was a god of the sea. And Poseidon had taken that away from him entirely. He was stuck presiding over the few tributaries of the rivers that snaked their way through the Underworld, a god of the ocean reduced to the role of a river spirit. That had to sting.

Of course, that same argument could also be made for Ouranos, the god of the heavens now stuck in a cave, but unlike Oceanus Ouranos wasn't in the habit of casting water miracles. It was beginning to look more and more likely that Oceanus might be the traitor we were looking for. He had a motive at least. The question was...

“How would the Holy Maiden have gone looking for Oceanus, anyway?”

“Maybe she paid him a visit in Tartarus,” Athena said but she was sounding unsure of it even as she spoke the words.

“That doesn't make sense though,” I said. “How would she even know to seek him out? And how would she have gotten down there?”

“For that matter,” Selene said, “the traitor we are looking for is someone who could have shown a hostile army a secret way into Olympus. And I doubt you all were stupid enough to tell these Titans the secrets to this realm's security.”

“When you put it that way it really doesn't make much sense,” Hermes said.

“Shame, too,” Athena said. “Because he would have been a prime candidate for having sent that Spawn of Scylla up the Styx.”

“None of this makes sense,” Hermes said.

“Of course,” I said, “there is one way this fits together. A very bad way.”

“And what's that?” Hermes asked.

“Who says there's only one traitor?” Selene answered for me.

Even if the moonlight I could see Athena's face grow pale. “But that Dark Lord said...”

“There was one traitor,” I said. “Who says she didn't recruit more gods since then?”

“None of this helps,” Hestia said. “Knowing who sold us out is useful but fretting over it isn't. Besides, we're about to find out more, aren't we?” She nodded over to where the next tholos was coming into view.

“Whose is this, anyway?” I asked.

“That would be mine,” Athena said.

“And there's something useful in there?” I asked.

Hestia boggled at me. “Are you kidding me? I thought Athena's tholos was your goal!”

I frowned. Yes, nobody had told her yet that we were after Hades' tholos but I had assumed that would be obvious by now.

“I may have a way to find out a lot about the current situation in there,” Athena admitted. “Assuming nothing bad happened to them.”

“'Them'?” I asked.

“You'll see,” Athena said and sped her hops up a bit.

**

Soon we had reached Athena's tholos and of all the ones we'd seen so far it was the most bizarre. It looked like nothing so much as a giant birdcage, enormous metal bars reaching all the way up to the ceiling. I really should have expected it. The name my village had worshiped her under had been Aithia, diver, referring to her borderline-obsession with birds of prey in general and owls in particular.

And that name fit perfectly here because the moment we entered the tholos we were greeted by a chorus of hoots followed by an entire flock of owls descending upon Athena.

The goddess of wisdom, usually so composed when in any other company than mine, rushed forward and greeted every single one of the owls. By name. All the ones who found themselves somewhere to sit received a pat on the head and in general she behaved like a slightly obsessed pet owner, reaching into a bag of holding and pulling out pieces of meat for the owls. I was glad she didn't pull out dead mice.

“I was so worried about you,” Athena told the owls. “I thought they might have done something horrible to you. I'm so glad.” She turned around to us and said: “Everybody, meet my family.”

“Is it just me or does she treat those owls better than she treats most mortals?”

“My owls have never insulted me,” Athena bit back. “Nor have they ever desecrated any legendary items I personally blessed.”

“Really?” I asked. “They don't poop everywhere?”

“They are perfectly behaved,” Athena replied, a bit snippily. “If they poop on someone's head it's because I told them to.”

I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Which I won't,” she said. “Now come in, we don't have much time.”

We entered the tholos and the owls, thankfully, did not descend upon us. Looking at them they were actually quite pretty. Apparently Athena liked white owls in particular, especially very large white owls. I tentatively reached out to pat the head of one and not only did it not shy away from me, it leaned into my touch.

“So, how exactly does this place help us?” I asked as I scratched the owl a little.

“She can see through the owls,” Hestia said.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes,” Athena said, then sat down on a recliner and asked softly: “Be my eyes once again?”

A dozen of the owls were suddenly completely focused on her.

“Find out what you can about the traitor and the Holy Maiden,” Athena said and the white haze of her Qi, of her power as a goddess, flowed out of her, pooling around her body.

The twelve owls beat their wings and flew off, scattering all over Olympus.

“So, do we just...” I began quietly.

“You can talk normally,” Hestia said. “Just don't jostle Athena. It'll take her a few minutes so we might as well make ourselves at home.”

And so I walked around the tholos, looking it over in detail this time. With the other Olympians it had been a mostly clinical interest but Athena was different. I had accepted, to some degree, that Athena was one of my women now. I would likely never fully forgive her for the way she had treated me years ago but that didn't mean that I wasn't drawn to this aggravating, annoying, stubborn ox of a woman. And so looking at her tholos was similar to the way I had inspected Alisha's old room back when we had visited the Silvermoon Clan.

The tholos wasn't really a birdcage. It was more of an aviary, not really a place to lock up the animals, to keep them on display, but a place for them to rest. There were bars, yes, but they were so large and so widely spaced that the animals had no problem coming and going as they pleased. On top of that, large vines snaked their way up the stone pillars, all the way to the ceiling, giving the owls plenty of room to perch on and build nests.

The ground floor of the tholos, meanwhile, held the recliner Athena was currently sitting in and a bed that was large for a single person but far too small for more than one. Aside from those there was a large desk with a chair as well as shelves full of books and scrolls. And, as Athena had said, there was not a spot of bird poop anywhere.

It fit the goddess I had worshiped as a child perfectly but somehow it still felt hollow, like the prop of a room Anna had at the royal palace, a room that held traces of the spectacular person Anna was but buried underneath the trappings of what was expected of her.

“So you have an odd look on your face, Felix Tailor,” Hestia said to me and I looked down, way down, to find her staring at me.

“I worshiped this crone for fifteen years of my life,” I said. “The me back then never thought he'd set foot in her private home.”

“Yeah, sure, that's totally the look you have on your face,” Hestia said, her voice as sarcastic as I'd ever heard it.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“You can fool Hermes,” she said. “You can fool Ares. You can even fool yourself, probably. But the way you two look at each other is unmistakable.”

I schooled my face. Athena and I had never talked about what exactly we had and how secret it would need to stay but I had gotten the very strong impression that she didn't want anyone to find out. Maybe that had changed since that night with Alisha but I didn't want to say anything about it to one of the Olympians.

“You don't have to answer,” Hestia said. “I won't tell anyone. I won't tell her either.” She placed a hand on my chest and said quietly: “I'm just glad someone managed to thaw her frozen heart.”

I gave her the tiniest nod, trying to convey both understanding and gratitude.

“Athena isn't like me and Artemis, you know?” Hestia continued. “Artemis and I are virgin goddesses. Our virginity is part of our divine identity. But Athena is different. She never had to be a virgin, she just chooses to be. Or, I suppose, she chose to be.”

I felt my cheeks warm. But instead of acknowledging that point I asked: “So how does being a virgin goddess work?”

“Wouldn't you like to know?” she asked in a teasing voice but I could see a faint blush on her cheeks.

I didn't say anything. I was genuinely curious. Did she have an impenetrable hymen? Was there just a smooth expanse of skin down there? Or was it just that she had no inclinations towards that kind of thing?

Finally she admitted: “If someone were to deflower us we would vanish and reappear in our tholos, just like if someone had killed us. For a virgin goddess, to be deflowered is to die.”

“Have you tried that before?” I asked. I wouldn't have been shocked.

Hestia blushed even deeper but what she said instead was: “Artemis has a lot of... companions. Female companions. Sometimes they get a little carried away with their fingers.”

I swallowed. Well, I had always assumed that Artemis' companions were more than just her hunting partners. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many stories of her losing her shit after being seen with them. But still, hearing it said out loud was... quite different.

Of course, if the same rules applied to Hestia that meant that it was entirely possible to be intimate with her so long as I avoided... What the fuck was I thinking?

“You're thinking something naughty...” Hestia teased.

“Shut up, short stuff,” I growled.

“Let's leave that conversation for after we liberate Olympus,” she said, still in that teasing voice and walked off.

I shook my head to clear it and looked around at the aviary again. Even with the twelve big owls gone that still left more than a dozen to regard us. I wondered if Athena was seeing through their eyes as well. Had she overheard that conversation? I shook my head. This whole place was messing with me.

But the more time I spent thinking about this tholos the more questions I had. For example:

“What are these owls eating, anyway?” I asked out loud.

“You mean when Athena isn't feeding them?” Hermes asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “She clearly didn't feed them for months and yet they're looking perfectly healthy. Normal owls eat mice and rats but I kind of doubt there's all too many of those in Olympus.”

“You'd be surprised,” he said. “The main plateau actually has its own sewers. And where there's sewers, there's rats.”

I frowned. I supposed it made sense. The people here actually had to take care of nature's call every once in a while. “Hold on,” I said. “If the main plateau has sewers, what about the plateaus the tholoi are on?”

“They don't.”

“So where do the toilets lead?” I asked.

“Have you seen any toilets in the tholoi we've visited so far?” he asked. “Any outhouses?”

I thought about it. I hadn't. “Then where do you guys go to relieve yourselves?”

“What makes you think us Olympians need to do that?”

I frowned at him. “I just spent weeks in Athena's presence. I'm pretty sure I've seen her go answer the call of nature a couple of times.”

“That's because she only ate mortal food when she was with you,” Hestia said and I turned around so I could face both gods.

“So you're saying that if you eat Nectar...”

“Correct,” Hestia said. “If most of your food intake is Nectar you do not produce any... excrement.”

“I mean, that's not precisely true,” Hermes said. “It turns into an odorless, flavorless, translucent slime.”

I all but groaned. “Let me guess. Zeus came up with that?”

“Yep,” Hermes said brightly. “Zeus told Dionysus to create a food that turns into lube when digested and Dionysus came up with Nectar.”

I fucking hate Zeus, I thought.