The High Court

by Chris Ledbetter

  “What’s hidden from sight, doesn’t exist.” Her smile could’ve split a rock clean in half.

  “You learn that in advanced philosophy, did you?”

  “Haven’t taken it …” She inched her fingers lower on my torso and stopped. “I’m no fool-osopher.”

  I recalled Rhea mentioning that Metis was a true fourth year. “I thought it was required by year four … for graduation?”

  “I probably would’ve taken it at Othrys this term, had I stayed …” She inched her fingers slightly lower. “But I chose a path of danger and excitement.”

  I chuckled nervously. My breath hitched as my arousal rose from her finger-led exploration. “Is that what I am … danger?”

  Metis wheeled me around slowly to face her. “No … I’m danger!” she whisper-yelled. “You’re excitement.”

  Fully aroused now, I spun her around and pinned her to an olive tree.

  “Yesss …” escaped her parted lips in a hiss.

  I covered her mouth with mine in a searing kiss. Our tongues danced against one another. She pulled me closer, deeper. My hands found her hair. She moaned into my mouth and then abruptly pushed me away.

  Panting, she feigned serious, her eyes dancing. “What kind of girl do you think I am?” Just as I opened my mouth to answer, the foreigners re-emerged from Headmistress’s quarters. They strode briskly back down the path toward our massive front gates.

  I held tightly to Metis’ waist.

  Moments later, Rhea exited her office and jogged an eagle’s swoop line to the Megaron Hall, completely disregarding formal pathways and intersections.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Curious, I nudged Metis forward and we ambled out of the grove, over to the Megaron. We opened the huge wooden doors. It was so quiet we could’ve heard a mouse fart. Headmistress could’ve been anywhere. I bargained on the Andron, so Metis and I continued that way.

  After several twists and turns, crossing the bridge over the brook, and heading up stairs, chaos had consumed the Andron. But Rhea was not there. The Muses talked animatedly amidst half-eaten terra-cotta plates of food. Coach Pontus and Professor Phoebe enjoyed their own furrowed-brow discussion. Pontus looked up and abruptly quieted his banter.

  His baritone voice bellowed across the room. “Time to get to class, you two.”

  Hmmm, if that wasn’t a brush off, I didn’t know what was. I began to ask where Rhea was, but under the circumstances, I figured it could wait. After all, she was actually teaching our morning class, Intro to Strategy. Metis grabbed my hand and led me back out of the Andron. We made our way to the classroom in which our morning class would be held. Phi and Don huddled together. Hera, Meter, and Tia conversed in hushed tones.

  Metis and I sat in two adjacent seats, wondering why no one even hinted at anything weird going on. Then Aphro sauntered into the room in an off the shoulder chiton. All heads whipped toward her like we were all made of metal and she was the magnet. Shade walked in just after Aphro did. His facial expression looked as if he’d just come through a field of flowers. His nose was wide open.

  Unexpectedly, Coach Pontus breezed into the classroom and strode to the head of the room. “I have an announcement to make. Please take out your wax boards and styli and prepare for class.” He proceeded to rifle through several scrolls that he unfurled atop the podium.

  The low, muted conversations rose to a din of murmurs.

  Hera raised her hand. “Is … Headmistress supposed to be …”

  “I will address that in a moment.” Pontus cleared his throat. He rolled one scroll up and secured another in place on a table near the front of the classroom. Then he looked up. “All right, may I have your attention,” he said as if hundreds of people were in the room. “As you know, our fearless Headmistress was to be teaching this course on Intro to Strategy. It is her forte. I am good at it. She’s better.” He sighed. “However, she has been called to an emergency Pantheon League-wide conference of headmasters and administrators. So today, I will be teaching from her lesson plans. I have guided our athletics program to prominence, using the principles that you’ll now learn. I learned them from Rhea.”

  “When is Headmistress coming back?” Tia asked.

  Pontus’ voice quieted a bit and dropped an octave. “I don’t know what is amiss here. She didn’t divulge. Only that she thinks it’s serious.” He paused. “That is to say … that I’m uncertain as to how long she’ll be gone. I imagine the summit won’t take all day. These things never do. But you know as well as I do that Rhea loves you all and loves this school. We shall all await her return and subsequent news with bated breath.”

  I began to speak up about what Metis and I saw but thought better of it. His last statement about Rhea loving the school and its pupils had me unsettled. Shaky ground. I wasn’t quite sure how to take that. Hera turned toward me, studied me for a moment, and then returned her attention to her wax board.

  “Let’s settle into the lesson, shall we?” Pontus paced back and forth. His voice drifted momentarily almost like he was thinking aloud more than teaching. “In years past, before the split, this course used to be a fourth-year seminar required for graduation. But in talking with Ananke, Rhea, and Ouranos …” He sighed. “Prior to his unfortunate transition—”

  “You mean death,” Tia blurted uncharacteristically. “Didn’t you, Coach? That’s what you meant to say, yes? He didn’t transition. He died!” Tia cleared her throat. Her joviality was not on display. “Strike that. He was murdered.”

  Pontus massaged his aged eye sockets. The crevice in his forehead deepened. “You’re not wrong, Hestia.”

  “Good.” Tia pounded her fist on the table. “Then from now on, let’s call it what it was. Murder. And death.”

  I was struck deeply by the shift in Tia’s tone. All the recent events must have been weighing on her. All of us really. Abductions. Ouranos. Crete. Othrys. Giant moving mountains. Rhea. Emergency meetings. Trials. We all needed a way to just put it behind us.

  “As I’d begun to say,” Pontus said, “this strategy course was a pre-graduation requirement. We decided that with the current, abbreviated student body that we’d offer it to all in attendance even though we technically only have four fourth years who are eligible for graduation at the end of term … Hestia, Hades, Metis, and Amphitrite.”

  I glanced at Metis. She beamed as if the sun shone directly into her face. In the seat in front of me, Tia crossed her legs and patted her hands atop her knee. Don rifled his fingers through Phi’s blue hair.

  Phi turned a frowned face toward Don. “This was good while it lasted.” Phi pretended to wipe a tear. “I’ll miss you next year.”

  “Hush it, girl.” Don laughed. “I’m only a year behind you.”

  Shade’s eyes widened as if he was shocked by the news of his imminent graduation. Then his shock morphed to smug.

  “Bow down,” Shade said. “I run this temple now.”

  Hera chortled. “As if …”

  Shade pointed at her. “Respect your elders.”

  “Earn a Dragon’s Claw Stylus at end of term, and we can talk about it.” Hera jeered. “They award it to the best student each year, as you know. I have three so far. How many do you have, Shade?”

  Shade sunk into his seat and grumbled something unintelligible.

  “Hopefully,” Pontus said, snapping to re-engage our attention, “our student body will grow in the coming years. But Rhea and I have to go on a few recruiting trips around the Aegean.”

  “And there will possibly be some defections from Mister Malaka Psychotic Sandals over at Othrys. More will surely come,” Hestia noted.

  “Tell me about it,” Phi said. “When HM Iapetus first—”

  “Did you just say HM?” Shade snorted. “As in headmaster?”

  “No,” Phi deadpanned. “His Majesty. He’s for real crazy. Trellos gia desimo! He ordered us to Acknowledge and Yield at an assembly once and I said to myself
… ummm, no. That’s why I put in for transfer.”

  “Great Gaia!” Hera said. “I don’t blame you.”

  Phi shook her head. “I bet no one else gets out of there now.”

  “Allllll right, class!” Pontos blared, clapping his large hands, “Let’s finally get to our lesson for today … so Rhea doesn’t turn me on a spit when she returns. Today, we are embarking on Introduction to Strategy. Also called War Theory, Competition Theory, or Game Theory. Styli at the ready …”

  A din of noise rose while we all prepared ourselves. I used the flat edge of my stylus to smooth out the wax from leadership class notes, deciding I needed at least two more tablets so that I didn’t have to keep erasing this one.

  Pontus’ deep voice began again. “Strategy and war theory is at its core, the study of choices within any arena of war. The concept of war is cast broadly here … not simply gods bludgeoning themselves for political ends.” He pointed at Poseidon. “You and I have talked at length about decision trees as they apply to wrestling, yes?”

  Don nodded.

  Pontus continued, “Your class notes begin now. Each participant in a competitive arena faces a choice amongst two or more strategies to employ, where a strategy is a portfolio of actions to take in advance of or in response to possible actions taken by other participants.”

  Pontus stopped so that we could all catch up with our note-taking. As I wrote, my mind drifted to my last confrontation with Kreios. I raised my hand.

  “Yes, Zeus.”

  “Coach, I couldn’t help thinking that this is like Stone, Scroll, and Sword. In the sense that we are to carefully consider our own action while calculating the actions our opponent might take.”

  “Quite correct, Zeus. Although, in that particular game there are no potential penalties attached with a given choice. We’ll talk about that later.” Pontus peered down at his unfurled scrolls of teaching notes. “That leads me to my next point … there are sequential events where the alpha goes first, followed by the beta. And there are simultaneous events where the alpha and beta move at the same time. Stone, Scroll, and Sword is the latter. Today, we’ll focus on simultaneous moves.

  “I would like you to split into groups of three. This exercise will work best if you team up with people with whom you’re not that familiar.”

  “Yeah right, Coach.” Tia laughed. “Everyone knows everyone here. We’re tighter than a well-tuned lyre string.”

  Don cut his eyes at me.

  “Look,” Meter said, as she caught Don and me crossing glares. “We are all Olympians. One school. One force. Let’s move past the last few hemeras.” She stood. “I choose Zeus and Phi. Let’s go.”

  I gazed around the room as our groups settled in. Don and Tia teamed up with Aphro. Given that the enigmatic Aphrodite seemed to make everyone’s loincloths bunch up, I knew they would be the group to watch for some cheap entertainment. Metis ended up with Hera and Shade, which would also have been an interesting mixture of personalities, much like oil and fire. I shot Metis a glance. She shook her head almost imperceptibly.

  My group was good, though, because I didn’t actually know Meter as well as I wanted. And Phi, I didn’t know at all. I just hoped that Don’s negative energy toward me wouldn’t transfer through Phi. Could have been awkward.

  “Now then,” Pontus said. “Here is the dilemma with which you’re faced. Each group must cross a body of water that you can’t swim across; furthermore, there are no boats and no raw materials to build any. However, there are three bridges. The first bridge is completely safe to cross, but only one team can fit on the bridge at a time. If two or more groups choose to cross at the same time, they must fight for the bridge, which would invariably waste necessary time and/or resources. Not to mention … you might just lose the fight altogether.”

  “I don’t back down from a fight, Coach,” Shade exclaimed. “If we choose the first bridge, just know you’re gonna have to go through me.”

  Hera snorted. “And what’s your plan B?”

  “Can we stay focused please? The second bridge is the span of choice for a pride of lions to cross. There is an eighty percent chance that they have just eaten, are sated, and will not bother you. However, there is a twenty percent chance that they are ravenous … looking for a meal.

  “The third bridge is situated near the base of an unstable cliff, known to avalanche. In fact, fallen boulders form portions of the bridge itself. The probability of a boulder crushing you as you cross is thirty percent. If any group decides to venture into either path of danger, I have a ten-sided die that I carved myself that will determine if your risk was worth it … or not.

  “To complicate matters, all three groups are competing to cross first. And also, if two or more groups chose bridges two or three, that increases the conflict exponentially because not only is there a chance of peril, but now the two groups must fight it out. Now since there was so much controversy at War Games practice, this exercise will determine the captains for this Hemera Khaos battle against the Aztecs and Norse.”

  Shade bolted out of his chair. “Hold the Hurler! You mean we would have three captains?”

  Pontus nodded.

  “But …”

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Pontus said. “And—”

  “So do I,” Hera chuckled.

  “—the group that displays the best teamwork and generates the best strategy to win deserves to lead us into war on Hemera Khaos.” Pontus clapped his hands. “Every group to their corners. Let’s go.”

  My hand shot up. “Coach Pontus, this isn’t going to be fair. Hera can read everyone’s minds. She can’t just turn that off.”

  Murmurs crescendoed around the room.

  Pontus dragged in a quick breath. “I have heard tales of this peculiar deity magic of Hera’s, much like Rhea’s. And this is the second time in recent memory that I’ve heard the word fair bandied about. But let me ask you, Zeus, what is it you’re afraid of?”

  Heat crept around my neck and up my cheeks.

  “Rhea and Hera are not the only beings in the cosmos with mind-bending, telepathic abilities. And furthermore, others with whom you compete will have special skills and attributes. You can’t just throw your hands up and not compete. The point of this exercise is to manage all contingencies. Remember this, in competition and war, you must turn opponent’s strengths into weaknesses.”

  Each group huddled into their own corner of the room. Once we got to ours, Demeter said, “Hera will try to read our minds but it won’t work.”

  Phi shook her head. “I really hate that thing she does.”

  I twitched a glance across the room and Hera stared directly at us.

  Meter continued her thought. “The truth is she can’t possibly listen to nine distinct mental voices, all thinking something different.”

  “I like the way you think, big sister.”

  Meter’s grayish-green eyes twinkled.

  “Except for Hera and her Dragon’s Claws, I think we have the smartest group in here. We’re gonna win this thing. Sorry, Psi.”

  “Psi?”

  Amphitrite twirled her indigo hair. “It’s what I call that lovable monster over there. You call him Don. I call him Psi.”

  “That makes my teeth hurt.” Meter scoffed.

  “Let’s get serious,” Phi said, taking a leadership role. “Each of us takes a few moments to construct their own strategy, then we come together to see if strategies mesh naturally.”

  I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. I thought back to last term, head-to-head matches of the strategy game, Stone, Scroll, and Sword against Kreios at his store down at the Agora. Because of that experience, all this talk of strategy in class resonated with me. It was as much about one’s own risk tolerance as it was about predicting the opponent’s. Memories of our Tartarus mission last term also came to mind regarding risks taken and predicting Campe’s erratic behavior. I glanced across the classroom and re
alized that getting Shade and Hera to agree on anything might be nearly impossible. Poor Metis.

  In terms of the other group, Don might be clouded by his own designs to win given that I pretty much won the first War Games captain’s challenge. He might be more risky, less careful with this assignment. His head rose suddenly and he glowered at me. I snapped my eyes shut to pretend I hadn’t been looking.

  Then, my eyes abruptly shot open as Hera yelled, “Dammit! I was just beginning to get on with you, Shade. Don’t sabotage this.”

  Shade pled his case, looking around the room, “Just follow my lead here.”

  “No. That’s so many shades of wrong, I can’t even count.”

  “We have to agree on the strategy.” He sighed.

  In unison, Hera, Shade, and Metis simultaneously turned to Pontus to ask, “Can we pick new groups?”

  Metis shot a pleading glance toward me. I shrugged and winked back.

  “Time’s almost up,” Pontus bellowed.

  Our group members looked at one another as I led off, “Neither Don nor Hera will go for the easy route, because that’s not who they are.”

  Phi and Meter both nodded.

  “Wait,” Phi said. “This is less of a reasoning problem and more of a math problem, solvable by matrix. Professor Koios over at Othrys taught advanced mathematical theory. Here, I’ll show you.” On her wax board, Amphitrite laid out two different three by three matrices with competitors and decisions, assigning payoffs for different choices. By the end, we all decided that the best odds for a good payoff were to go with either the first or second bridge.

  “We learned about this last term, before Metis transferred, I’m certain she’s telling her team the same. Metis is smart … like, really smart. Koios put a complex math problem on a wax board at the front of the class and left it there for a long time. Metis was the only one to solve it.”

  Meter scooted forward in her seat. “So how do we use this against them? Metis and Hera may not always get along, but the two of them working in tandem could be formidable.”