Chapter 7
A GOD''S WILL
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So, life continued at beautiful Delphi. It was a mix of glorious, peaceful, and adventurous days there. Achilles really liked that. And Nephele seems to really grow in their way of life. For the young son of Poseidon, Nephele’s wellbeing was of the utmost importance. He was really enjoying her company. The rest of the company seemed to be in high spirits too.
“We live in great times,” Nikolaos was always saying.
The Priest was fond of Alexander and the Macedonians but always knew the wrath of the Gods, if Alexander would become a tyrant like his father. After all it was public knowledge in the limits of their community, that they were the ones to bring divine justice to Phillip, with Achilles holding the bloody knife too.
But the peace and quiet of the Delphian heroes was about to change. Because the gods after all, were not after tyrants. They were after blasphemers.
One day, Nikolaos and Achilles were testing their Elemental powers, beside a lake, near Delphi. Nikolaos was an expert at his specialty, but he had a disadvantage against Water Manipulation. On the other hand, when they were away from a water source then Achilles had a disadvantage, because he could not find water to manipulate. Now, the fight was on Achilles territory. Blasts of water and fire were coming out of their hands, aiming at each other. Of course, they had taken precautions and used ward spells.
“Tired yet?” shouted Nikolaos from his position.
“Son of a God, remember?” he answered laughing.
“Demi-god or not, I will not go any easier on you!” he said and sent a huge fireball towards Achilles.
He stumbled and couldn’t deflect the attack resulting in him flying and landing on his back.
“Yeah!” Nikolaos cheered.
Achilles made a painful grimace.
“For a demi-god, you got your ass kicked alright” said a cloaked man, who appeared from thin air, and now was standing above his head.
Nikolaos fell to his knees immediately.
“God Poseidon!” he shouted with excitement.
Achilles stood up immediately hearing the name of his father.
“Achilles, kneel…” whispered Nikolaos.
“No, I don''t think I will,” he said, staring right into the eyes of his father.
“Everything is fine, my child. You can stand,” Poseidon said. His appearance now did not make him look like anything remotely to a deity. His cloak was casual, kind of afflicted, with some seaweed appearing to be hanging next to his shoulders. He looked like an elderly, concerned father, who tried to sneakily meet with his son. And that was exactly the case.
Nikolaos obeyed Poseidon’s request and stood up.
“It''s not an unusual phenomenon to get this kind of disrespect from my son”.
“You get what you deserve, old man. First of all,…” Achilles was about to start a very aggressive talk, but Poseidon stopped him.
“Nikolaos, my child, I would like a moment with my son”.
Nikolaos just nodded, bowed and disappeared in seconds.
“So, father,” Achilles started. “Why are you here?”
“I was in the neighborhood, and I said, ‘Why not visit my son?’”.
“Please, cut the crap,” Achilles said, as he was washing his wounds at the lake. “Every time you visit me or any of these priests here, is only to ask from us a task or an errand, because you cannot move your royal ass from your thrones”.
Clouds appeared out of nothing, bringing shade to the scenery, and with an instantaneous earth rumble the god increased his voice.
“Watch your tongue, young one. You may be my son, but I am an Olympian nonetheless!” he shouted, and the sky went a little dark only for a second,
He lowered his voice and relaxed his nerves, with the clouds disappearing and the sea becoming still again.
“But you are right, I am here for a reason”.
Achilles chuckled.
“As expected,” he commented.
“Things have gotten far worse than we had imagined. This is no laughing matter, and I request you to hear me with utmost focus!”
Achilles wiped his hand in a towel and started walking with his father.
“So, what''s the occasion this time?”
“I have to explain the situation back from the very beginning”.
Achilles stood for a second and crossed his hands to his chest.
“I have nothing else to do today. So, why don’t you begin?”
Poseidon sighed.
“Well, after we the Gods defeated our ancestors, the Titans, we imprisoned them in Tartarus. We had to decide who among the elder brothers, me, Zeus, and Hades, would be the Keeper of the Underworld. Nobody really liked Hades, due to the fact he almost betrayed us to join the side of Kronos at some point.”
“What do you mean he almost betrayed you?”
“When the Gods were scattered by the Titans and were routed, Zeus took it upon himself and fought with everything he had. Hades on the other hand, when he saw the tide turning in favor of the Titans, he went in front of our father’s throne to seek forgiveness. This lying snake… Can you believe that out of us Hades is actually the oldest one? And he behaved like that… He did not believe neither in himself nor in the rest of us. Now that I think about it… It’s kind of sad… When Zeus managed to single handedly defeat the Titans and make his way to the palace where Kronos was, full of blood and wounds, Hades realized his fault, his betrayal, maybe he even felt regret… He took out his Dagger and slit our father’s throat”.
“Kronos died?” asked Achilles in shock. “I thought it impossible for immortal beings to die”.
“I don’t know what to call it. As Gods, we can still feel his presence in the Cosmos, but he is not here in any kind of form. Something like that happened only once. After that the Gods ensured to consult the three Fates to ensure their immortality. You see the Titans, although they didn’t die, they were incapacitated. Zeus in the beginning asked the Fates to sentence the Titans to death. They refused… But I got carried away, not the topic I was talking about.”
Achilles smirked.
“Like an old man telling stories. Continue with Hades. How did he become the king of the Underworld? Your purpose of the story is about him is it not?”
“There was a meeting of the six brothers and sisters, the children of Kronos. Hades, myself, Zeus and Hera, Demeter and Hestia. When the topic on who was to be the ruler of the primary domains, which were the Sky, the Seas and the Underworld, everyone unanimously chose Hades to take the Underworld since no one wished for it . We knew – Zeus had told the rest of us– of his almost betrayal. In our eyes this was his punishment. As you can understand, he didn''t like it one bit. He said we were traitors, traitors to the cause. Back then, we thought he was exaggerating. But we saw the real danger during the Trojan War”.
“The war that Agamemnon waged on Priam? That all the heroes of the past took part in it? How was it possible for Hades to interfere?”.
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“It was not a simple war, son. Helen, Hector, and all the heroes, were just a part of the story. Have you ever wondered why the war lasted for ten years? The Greeks had at least twice the army”.
Achilles stopped him with a move of his hand.
“It wouldn’t be the first time that a great army is held off or defeated by another. Look at what Leonidas did. Or Alexander, if the rumors are true”.
“You may be right, but when an army has soldiers like Achilles, the son of Thetis and Ajax, the son of Telamon, you are able to take the city in a matter of months. It was Hades the one who made this war so long and deadly. Hades whispered sweet lies in the ears of Priam making him able to withstand the armies of the Greeks. Troy was a city Apollo was fond of. Athena and Hera despised Paris for not offering the golden apple to one of them… It was a matter of time before this war became a conflict between gods, not between mortals”.
Achilles seemed confused for a second.
“Wow, back up. What do you mean Hades was behind the Trojan war?”
“As you probably already know, the initiator for the war was Helen’s abduction from Paris. But the conflict started way before that…Aphrodite was the one who promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world to him. That''s because Paris gave her the golden apple. The golden apple which was thrown into the marriage banquet of Thetis and Peleus, the parents of the great Achilles. Eris, daughter of Nyx, a chthonic goddess of the underworld was the one who threw the apple and created mischief and strife amongst the rest of the goddess. We recently found out that she was sent by Hades, as she answers to him since she is a goddess from the Underworld, Hades’ domain…”
“So Hades was behind the most renowned war in history… what of it?”
“Our power, after we defeated the Titans, had been diminished. We needed a source to keep our power intact. This source came from your worship. As long as we have people to worship us and make offerings to us, we will have power. Well, Hades wants to take that away from us”.
“So, by initiating a war of that scale, with the human losses unmeasurable… He was … weakening you, the rest of the Olympian gods…”
“Yes, but of course he never shared his intentions with the humans he seduced to his cause. After the death of Hector, Priam grew desperate and sorrowful. Hades perfectly manipulated him, bringing him to the edges. So, he said to Priam that in India, there are the Gates of Hades. Upon unlocking the Gates he would unleash the hordes of the underworld. Priam was so resentful, so desperate at that time that he was willing to sacrifice all mankind rather than admit defeat to the Greeks. The Gates can be opened with his own Dagger, the one he used against Kronos. And thankfully for us, Hades had left it on Earth, he didn’t have it with him in the Underworld. Unfortunately, the weapon was present during the Trojan war, held by a Greek hero. He was looking for it. By extending the duration of the war, he was not only trying to find out who holds it, but also reducing the human population”.
“What about those Gates? Why would he need to open them since he can freely roam the earth?”
“This Gate was the gateway of Hades and his way to communicate with the outer world. Of course, it was possible for him to use the gate, but only for him to leave alone. His beasts and hounds were locked forever in the Underworld. With the Dagger, he would unleash these monstrosities upon the face of the planet”.
“So, you needed to stop him from taking that dagger”.
“Correct. Once we realized his ambition, we took action to end that war. I was the one who told Achilles about this. It was then when they realized that they could never take the city by force. But Achilles then was shockingly killed by Paris. Although as you know, Odysseus managed to take the city with the trick of the Trojan Horse. After that it was only a matter of time before your brotherhood was formed".
“How so? What do you mean?”
“Odysseus, Philoctetes and Neoptolemus, as you know, are the founders of the Temple here in Delphi. With the presence of all the twelve Olympians, we could not destroy the Dagger but we could divide its influence and purpose into more pieces, with all our strength and sorcery combined we managed to bless two more divine weapons bounding them as keys similar to the fate of the Dagger, with special power, in order to seal Hades once and for all in his realm, never to come out. These weapons were the Shield of Achilles, the Bow of Hercules, and Sword of Peleus, which used to be the original Dagger. Once the Gates were sealed, Hermes scattered the weapons to three different places, the one here in Delphi, the other in the Temple of Siwa and the other left in Troy. According to our calculations, no man alive could ever find them”.
“If that was the case father, you wouldn’t be here” said Achilles, sitting on a large rock beside the lake.
Poseidon seemed tired for a second, as if his power was flickering. But almost immediately he found his composure and continued.
“After many years, Hades found a way to communicate only with certain individuals. Those who craved the destruction of the Gods and kept the worship of our brother Hades alive. That''s why your Brotherhood never allows someone to gain power. Because power gives strength. That leads to arrogance and defiance of us. The notions and ideas of immortality and unlimited power take roots. Oh Achilles. Only if you knew how many leaders I saw being corrupted from power. Themistocles, the Athenian general, Pericles, Epaminondas, even Xerxes and Darius, the Persian kings. All of them fell into the well-orchestrated trap of my brother… They fell into the embrace of Hades.”
“But why Hades? Why not you or Zeus?”
“Because when someone gains so much power that nothing mortal scares him… Only the fear of death remains. No man is immortal. That much they know. But once they start to fixate on this idea, Hades starts to plant ideas. And these people, wishing eternal life here on earth, or even a beautiful ending in Elysium and not in the flames of Tartarus, they start accepting his words. And not long after, they become his puppets”.
“So, it is about your monopoly of piety”.
“It is about the fate of the world! Ahh, don''t you see? And now Alexander has gained too much power...”
Achilles raised his eyebrows in surprise upon hearing the main point of interest escape his father’s lips.
“You want me to stop Alexander? Are you crazy? Last time we heard from him, he was preparing for a campaign in India…”
He stood frozen for a second. Realization hit him. In his mind, everything that his father told him up until this point made sense.
“He wants to unleash the armies of Hades on this Earth!” his eyes rolled as he said that.
Poseidon nodded, confirming his son’s conclusion.
“Let alone he already has one out of three weapons…”
"What? How did you miss that?"
"His piety is undoubtful… He sacrifices to the gods before every battle he gives. We’ve been played by his cunningness … we thought he was loyal to the gods, but this was all a well-played act in order to not create any suspicions… The Olympians…” he sighed. “Son! I need your help!”
Achilles was troubled seeing the God of the Ocean, his own father, afraid. The situation was more dire than he thought.
“Which weapon does he have possession of?” Achilles asked.
“He owns the Shield of Achilles. When he arrived at Troy, he visited the Museum there, to commemorate the legendary war of Ilion. There, in an exhibition, he saw Achilles’ Shield. Of course it was a replica. What we did not know was that he forced the priesthood there to give him the original. We thought nothing of it, as the next thing he did was to dedicate this Shield to the glory of “Almighty Zeus”, as Alexander himself cried towards the heavens. We’ve been played, son. And our enemy this time is more capable than anyone we ever faced”.
“So I need to find the Bow in Siwa before he does, and the Sword which is somewhere here in Delphi right?”
Poseidon drew the dagger from Achilles’ belt.
“You always carry it with you”.
Achilles took his dagger to his hands. All this time, he was a keeper of a divine weapon, without him knowing it.
“It was a token,” Poseidon commented.
“From whom?” Achilles asked.
The god did not answer. But his face showed regret. Regret and great pain. Then he turned and looked him in the eye.
“Find Alexander my boy, find him and rob him of the power that could ruin us all!”
“But why? Since we already have one of the divine weapons, he would never be able to open the Gates!”
“I wish it worked that way… You see the Gates of Hades are enormous, the divine weapons open parts of that Gate, even with two of the divine weapons, one can open the majority of those Gates unleashing a terrible outcome…”
“It’s dangerous. If I fail I will end up giving him access to one more divine weapon…”
“Only a divine weapon can battle another divine weapon, considering the user knows how to wield it. And Alexander proved worthy to wield the Shield… Thus, becoming unbeatable in battle!”
Achilles started walking nervously.
“Oh okay, so you come here with the sole purpose of recruiting me to your campaign, with zero chances of success”.
Poseidon didn’t respond.
“Do you realize that you are dicks sometimes? I am your son! And you send me to my most probable death!”
“What do you want me to do about it?” Poseidon replied with weariness.
“To stop treating me as an errand boy would be a good start. I haven’t see you in two years and on our first encounter after so much time, you give me a suicide mission?”
“I give you this mission because I KNOW you can prove worthy of wielding the Dagger! You are the only one able to go up against Alexander and the Shield! Hell, I believe you can even battle Hades if you truly used your full potential”.
Poseidon wore his hood once again and a strange glow started surrounding him.
“You will speak to no one else about what you heard except your team. After all, you are going to need help… This mission is sacred, secret and decided! I, Poseidon Ruler of the Seas, bound you Achilles, son of Poseidon, a demigod in nature, to fulfill it”.
Achilles sighed heavily and irritated. By the laws of Delphi, when a god presents himself or herself in one of the Argives, either Warrior, Ranger or even Priest, the Argive is bound to this mission, and according to its description, he must not reveal any details to anyone, not even to the High Priest, head of the brotherhood. Anyone who decided to disobey the Gods… Well, there were Fates even worse than death.
And then Poseidon disappeared, and Achilles remained alone on the shore.
“Damn these gods…” he said with his teeth gritted, with a flame of anger building inside him.
But he knew his father was right. No matter how much he hated the Gods, the world order, if disrupted, could bring massive and extensive destruction to humanity. And he just could not let that happen, nor could he since he was bound to the fate of this mission…