Ch. 41: The Book With Numbered Names
The book was old and looking brown and burnt. There were only a handful of pages, Eris said something like the book was something every member of the circle had, she was curiously about it so she broke into the house. I don't believe her story but I bet I could leave it at that for now.
The book was like a diary of sorts, it was written in ancient greek-- I for one knew Greek but ancient Greek was just another thing entirely.
The characters on the book were too ancient to have existed in my time, was there another language that was not recorded in my time? My eyes started to sting me a bit but I ignored the pain and continued to scan the contents of the book over and over hoping something would click in my head. The other two looked confused too, Talos made quite an effort to hide it but Eris was an open book.
The burning sensation in my eyes increased drastically that it was becoming hard to ignore, I felt a bone chilling wind spiral overy eye like a wriggling worm. Right before my eyes the words started to shift and come off the pages like fire ants scurrying about.
The words had come to life and rearranged themselves back in place this time they had become more familiar to me, they still felt the same but I saw them in English. I shifted my gaze to the two with me to see if they experienced the same change but it was only me. This led me to the conclusion that it was the eye's doing, just what did Hades have to do to acquire such a cursed possession?
I missed the days where Greek mythology was as it was, ancient and less magical.
"You can read it?" Talos asked in a very questioning way, I was sure I made no mistake in showing any unwarranted facial expression yet how did she— "Unlike us who are clearly faltered by the book you seem to be looking at it word for word and with a piercing intensity that leads me to suspect that you either know what it means or you like the creepy handwriting so which is it?"
Why this little brat, do I need to threaten her again? "Don't get your panties in a twist because I was just stating the obvious." Now she was playing it safe with her half assed sympathy. "So what's it say, don't tell me you want to keep it all to yourself. Remember you are still my number one suspect."
Should I read it our loud or keep it to myself? I suppose I could just read the first page and feed her curiously if I see something not worth disclosing I'll keep it to myself. I started at the first line and read the words, the inks looked fairly faded in some areas but visible enough to read still. "I just finished it the formula but it's still not perfected, it's unstable and unpredictable.
This black amber was a mistake, I should not have made it. I made a mistake, we all did. This is where our greed had pushed us to." And that was where the page ended, was it a confession or something? There was a strange formula at the bottom of page but there was no way I could tell what was what.
The next few pages were wripped out but I got a page that was still fairly new, I could tell because the ink was much darker and of a different size. Even the handwriting was different, like someone else had possession of the book from its original owner.
I started to read what was there, it was a list. "These are the lists of candidates for black amber. (1) Failure. (2) Hades was a success or so we thought but somehow he proved to he the first person to ever conquer the poison. Where did we go wrong? We will have to kill him again, his presence is a problem.
(3) Hermes, he should not have gone against us. I knew he was too weak but to this extent, it would be a waste to lose the most powerful asset but sacrifices must be made for the greater good. (4) The Golden Apple is the most perfected form of the poison yet, to test it we will have to sacrifice one od the three queens of Olympus. Utter chaos will follow and the foolish godess will be blamed for it.
(5) It has been decided, the next target..." SHIT!! I jerked my head back slightly and reached out to the book but Talos stopped me.
"Who's the fifth person and how did you conquer the posion?" She was seriously more focused on the case than anything else now.
Just what in the hell was I dealing with, I was the second target— a guinea pig. Me-- HADES!? Who would want me out of the way? Who would want to cause so much chaos by taking out the big gods of Olympus? I'm sure Talos must have figured the same thing as me or perhaps even more.
"That is important information, this is my biggest challenge yet." Talos said while stroking her chin and her eyes burning with energy, could she have figured something or was she just insane? "Someone is after the big shots and Ares fails to have the IQ to plot something of this magnitude. Where did the black amber come from and why was it crucial you died. Who would stand to gain from all this?
That would have been the most important information over these planned attacks but not quite."
My eyes flickered a bit as we locked eyes with each other, she knew something I didn't but what? I doubted she would tell the main suspect in her case so I had to figure it out myself. She said something about planned attacks, did it have something to do with that?
The timing of the attacks but there was no definite date for each, we don't even know who the first was— but for it not to be notices or mentioned maybe it was an I significant god. So what about the timing? It was then my eyes locked on the point. "I see now, according to the book Hermes death was recorded before apple meaning he was supposed to die before the apple. But it happened just after?
Why was that?"
"Why indeed? It's surprising to meet someone who's brain worked efficiently. Though it's not as fast as mine though." Did I just recieve a compliment from this cocky girl? "You're right about one thing Hades, the timing is off. Not to mention the fact that you were supposed to die meaning that you were never meant to be the trigger for Hermes death."
"Does that mean I was never the cause for Hermes death?" I asked a bit optimistically.
But she shrugged me off slightly before responding with a cautious tone. "I would not jump straight to conclusions if I were you, there is still another chance that there was no error since no one has died from the apple... Yet!"
Way to be positive. My eyes shot up at the sudden realization of it. "Dammit, Aphrodite she has the apple. I have to stop her from eating it."
"That is if she hasn't eaten it yet." I glared at Talos to put her off but I knew she was right. The Greek myth never said anything about the apple being edible so I assumed it was a treasure rather than a poison laced apple. It's kind of like Snowhite all over again. "Okay but you know she's lying right?
There is no way all members of the circle will have this same book, what an audacious effort to put up a lie."
I already knew Eris was lying about the book earlier thanks to the eye but what would I have done without the eye's help but Talos did not have the eye or did she-- was she like me? Eris was shaking in her boots was she scared for her life or maybe because she was drenched in cold water? "Please don't kill me, I lied about the source of the book.
The truth is that I took it off Ares at the party, when I found out it was something that would put me in harm's way I came to return it, that's the whole truth. Please spare my life."
THE CHARACTER "ERIS" SPEAKS THE TRUTH.
My head was starting to hurt, was it overloading or something? It's one rollercoaster after the other, whatever Hermes was caught up in he must have been trying to warn me before he was done in. Sёarch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
ZIIING!!
What was this? My sixth sense was picking up something, it was faint but someone was coming out way. Was it Ares? How long had we been here for? From The sounds the person was fastly approaching the office was there anywhere we could hide? Not enough time, we were busted-- "S**t."
Eris and Talos were still clueless on what was coming. I walked forward just as the figure appeared behind the door and started to turn the door knob, deep down I prayed we locked the door but-- we didn't.
CLICK!
The door came open slowly and there stood the lord of the house with a villainous grin on his face as his eyes locked on me especially. "Well what do we have here? A rat infestation."
This bastard just had to come at the worst possible timing, talk about bad luck.