by Simon Archer
“Great,” Beth grumbled behind me. Jade elbowed her in the ribs, and Beth grunted but kept her sarcastic comments to herself.
“While this was important, it was a distraction,” Harmonia announced. “In order to complete the real mission at hand, you didn’t need to release me. Don’t get me wrong. I am grateful. It was destined to be some time before I got out.”
“Well, I’m glad that you’re out as well,” I said. “But I don’t quite understand what you’re talking about. What real mission?”
“The Ultimate Weapon,” Aphrodite said with raised and knowing eyebrows.
A pang of guilt hit me in the gut as hard as Jade elbowed Beth. “Oh,” I replied.
“Oh is right,” Aphrodite said with pursed lips. She put her hands on her hips, like a mother scolding a child. “Everything that happened here prevented you from working on it, which should be your main focus.”
“I see,” I said with a short nod.
“Be sure to not let distractions like this one get in the way of that,” Harmonia warned with a serious gaze. “She is counting on you being distracted.”
My mind’s eye flashed to Kari and her new uniform in the Amazonian garb, looking fierce and determined. Had she really planned this whole thing to keep me from making the Ultimate Weapon? So she could keep her head start in making it before I did?
“Don’t be discouraged,” Harmonia reassured me. “You can use what you learned from this towards making the Ultimate Weapon, but you didn’t need it.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I said as I rubbed my hands up and down my arms.
Then, Jade, Daniella, and Beth stepped forward, each of them wrapping an arm around me, or taking my hand.
“Don’t worry,” Jade said with a bold wink at the gods. “We’ve got his back.”
“Just like he’s got ours,” Beth assured them.
“Always,” Daniella said as she looked at me.
I felt like I was going to cry all over again, but I held it in as the gods exchanged glances.
“I think we should be on our way, don’t you, daughter?” Aphrodite asked as she held out her arm for the goddess.
“Indeed,” Harmonia said with a toothless smile. She accepted Aphrodite’s arm and turned back to us for one last word. “Tyche’s blessings on you, son of Hephaestus, daughter of Hebe, daughter of Demeter, and daughter of Asclepius.”
Then, in the space of a blink, the gods were gone.
I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief once they were out of sight. I bent forward and sucked in a large breath of air. Jade laughed nervously while Beth just stared at the spot where the gods had once been in awe.
“I really wish the first time I had met gods would have been much more eventful,” Beth joked with a straight face.
I shoved Beth’s shoulder playfully. Since she wasn’t expecting it, my friend lost her footing in the water and fell with a violent and loud splash. Water sloshed back onto me.
“Now, none of that!” Sarah scolded as she waded forward. “The place is wet enough as it is.” The blacksmith looked around hopelessly at the mess. “Are we going to have to redo the smithy every semester while you go to school here?”
I shrugged dramatically. “Maybe.”
Luckily we found out a lot of the building was salvageable. Soldiers from the Vreg branch were kind enough to come and help us clean up the place. We did have to put in a replacement order for some of the equipment, but the Elemental Officials assured us that they would get the machines as soon as possible, especially when I relayed the gods’ warning about the Ultimate Weapon.
Unfortunately, I kind of shot myself a little bit in the foot when I dropped that little bomb on them. Because while it did hurry up the rebuilding process for the smithy, it also meant that it refocused the Stratego on his desire for the Ultimate Weapon. My work time in the forge was increased once again, and I had to present weekly check-ins to the Stratego himself, which I wasn’t excited about.
However, we and the rest of the campus quickly recovered from the Tainted Love ordeal. The next day, after Aphrodite and Harmonia left, the Elemental Officials had some announcements in the cafeteria which had also been quickly repaired after the fight that broke out there.
The four of us sat at our usual table while Beth complained about how she would never eat another apple as long as she lived when the Elemental Officials paraded in. The twelve of them entered with their usual fanfare and made their way up to their platform, standing in a row with the Stratego at the center.
“Students of the Academy,” the Stratego boomed, “we have had quite the infamous couple of weeks, nothing like our beloved Academy has seen before.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Daniella grumbled under her breath, and I snickered into the ice cream I was still picking at after dinner.
“As a result of some of the recent developments, we have decided to reexamine some of the rules of the Academy.” The Stratego cleared his throat and pulled at the collar of his shirt, suddenly uncomfortable. I instantly wondered what could possibly be making the General, of all people, so uneasy.
“We will be removing the stigma on… relations between students and graduated soldiers of the Military,” the Stratego proclaimed, pausing only once as he thought about which word to use when talking about dating relationships between the students, “So that they do not feel the need to sneak around and bribe or blackmail their comrades into silence.”
A sudden smattering of voices erupted in the cafeteria, excited about this new news. Even my friends and I were surprised by the announcement. The three of us noticed as Bethany’s gaze immediately darted about the crowd, looking for Bella. The Eda leader caught Beth’s eye and winked in confirmation at my friend. Beth’s neck turned red, but all of us congratulated her at the prospect of getting to be with her lover, for real this time. It would be messy, but we still needed to discuss the possibility of Beth and Bella joining our relationship.
The Stratego let the students have their moment of celebration before he held up his hands. The room fell into silence once more.
“There will be new regulations about what is allowed in class and during training times,” the Stratego said, “but those are being ironed out and will be in place for the new semester. Now we would like to move on to another round of drafts for second years.”
The excitement quickly changed to curiosity and intensity amongst the student body. I noticed Jade’s face pale, and her gaze shifted down to her lap. I reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Jade sent me a small smile, laced with nervousness.
“First, we would like to acknowledge a student who…” Once again, the Stratego seemed to be searching for the right words, his confidence faltering. “Who, despite everything she has been through these last several weeks, showed resolve and resilience, even in the face of false accusations. We would like to welcome Jade Ternias to the Vreg branch.”
The four of us paused for a moment, but then Beth, Daniella, and I erupted into tumultuous applause, standing up for our friend. Jade buried her head in her hands, suddenly embarrassed.
“Come up, Jade!” Daniella encouraged, pulling at her elbow. “You got drafted.”
The applause continued around us, but Jade still didn’t move. She shook her head, still collapsed in her hands. I bent forward and peeled Jade’s hands away from her face.
“What’s wrong?” I said, my voice loud enough so she could hear me but not enough to share it with everyone else.
“I don’t want to go up there,” Jade said weakly. “In front of everyone again, with all of their eyes on me. I can’t.” Jade was about to bury her head in her hands again, but I stopped her by sliding my hands into hers.
“Come on,” I said, pulling her up. “I’ll go with you.”
“Cameron,” Jade protested, but I cut her off.
“You can do this,” I encouraged her, not giving my friend a choice. “You got drafted, and dammit, you’re going
to get your sash!”
Jade untangled herself from the bench and walked by my side up to the platform where the Elemental Officials and the leader of Vreg branch waited for her. I stopped at the base of the stair and led her up, so she could receive it on her own.
She took in a breath of courage and walked forward, ducking her head down so the Vreg leader could slip the sash around Jade’s body. I cheered louder than anyone, whistling and whooping as I watched my friend’s face light up, having finally been accepted by the Demigod Academy for the Elemental Military as one of their own.
Finally, the four of us had found our places at the Academy. Each one of us represented each of the four branches, with Jade in Vreg, Daniella in Oura, Bethany in Eda, and I in Enka. While we might have had the sashes that represented our belonging, we first belonged to each other. And we would always have one another.
A tap on my shoulder interrupted my cheering for Jade. I turned to look into Hailey’s deep eyes, which sparkled as she smiled at me. She leaned forward so she could speak in my ear.
“Want to get out of here?”
Oh, gods, did I. But I didn’t want to abandon Jade, especially since she had just achieved something so important.
The Elemental Officials escorted Jade off the platform on the other side, so I tried to catch her eye across the room. She quickly spotted me and waved excitedly, but then saw Hailey at my side. Without having to say a word, my former roommate’s face spread into a sly and knowing smile. She lifted a finger and pointed at Daniella before she made her way back to the table, whispering something in Beth and Daniella’s ears.
I laced Hailey’s hand in mine and scurried out of the cafeteria while the Stratego began to announce the next drafted second year.
Daniella and Jade soon met up with us, both of them wearing grins and holding hands.
Hailey brought us to one of the benches in the quad which was deserted because everyone was in the cafeteria. Or they were supposed to be, at least.
“Cameron,” Hailey said as she took my hands in hers.
“Oh gods, don’t tell me you’re about to propose, we need to do that all together” Jade said, yanking my hands from hers and scooting back on the bench with me.
Daniella chuckled at our antics as I leaned over and kissed Jade softly before pulling back and shrugging at Hailey.
“Not marriage at least,” Hailey said with a sheepish smile. “But I do want to propose that we be together. A couple,” She squinted in confusion, “A thruple, quadruple….as boyfriend, girlfriends, however you want to define it.”
I chuckled at Hailey’s nervousness, finding it completely endearing and sweet. Hailey’s face fell at my laughter and Daniella and Jade shared a concerned look.
“What? Do you not… I mean, if you’re not ready, but I just thought--”
I cut her off by planting a kiss on her lips, giving the daughter of Apollo the only answer she needed. I swallowed her words, and we sat there for a moment, melting into one another as our hands roamed the familiar curves of one another’s bodies.
Hailey pulled away. “So yes?” she checked.
I rolled my eyes and then proceeded to kiss her again.
“What about us?” I heard a pout and pulled back to see Daniella pouting with her arms crossed.
I laughed and gestured and before I knew it, I had all three girls surrounding me, sharing kisses with each other and me. And it was all I could have ever wanted.
Epilogue
Six Weeks Later
Multicolored sparks danced around me as I moved the metal up and down the grinder. It was a tricky process considering how small the metal already was. I melted all of it down into one small cube until the remnants of the Necklace of Harmonia were nothing more than a hunk of gold.
I wove the piece back and forth on the grinder, thinning it out. There was a steady rhythm to my movements, with the steadiness of a metronome. The gold still refused to talk to me, but I used my knowledge and skills to bend the material to my will.
Though I nearly dropped the piece to the ground when someone tapped me on the shoulder, surprising me.
The metal bobbled in my hands, but I managed to catch it before the fragile substance clattered on the concrete floor. I whirled around, a snarl at the corner of my mouth, ready to bark at whoever had interrupted me.
Hailey stood at my side, though her expression shifted immediately from playful to afraid at the sight of my clear annoyance.
“I shouted your name,” she said defensively, “but you didn’t answer me.”
“I was in the zone,” I grumbled as I shut off the power grinder, descending the smithy into silence.
“Clearly,” Hailey said as she crossed back to the door. “But you need to get out of the zone. We’re going to be late.”
“Crap,” I snapped as I cradled the pieces of the Necklace in my hands. I walked over to the workbench and crouched down. Hastily, my fingers wove around the lock on the safe. I imputed the numbers and then whipped open the door. With a flourish, I dumped the necklace pieces into the safe for later use.
I looked at the scattered pieces, all thinned and coated with rust. They seemed so insignificant and harmless as they sat there in the safe. But I knew the truth behind these pieces of rust encrusted gold. They were dangerous and full of destruction. They had wrecked so many lives and almost ruined my friend’s. As much as I wanted to throw the pieces in the nearest pit, I knew I needed them.
See, as terrible as this necklace was, it was incredibly powerful. It was one of the very few items in mythology that actually had the ability to manipulate the gods.
Most of the time, every dangerous thing in the Greek myths had to do with the gods manipulating the humans or the demigods. But there were selective stories about the gods getting fooled. They were there to remind us that even the gods had weaknesses. They were not invincible.
And here I was, tasked with making another weapon that would weaken the gods. It would be the Ultimate Weapon. So I knew that I needed all the help I could get. Including the help from the Necklace of Harmonia, once dipped in crime and cursed to harm women for eternity.
“Cameron,” Hailey pressed. “We’ve got to go.”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I said as I shut the safe door, also shutting out my thoughts about the weapon and the potential power behind it. I got to my feet and joined Hailey by the door. I whipped my apron off my head and hung it by the door, then scampered out, hot on Hailey’s heels.
“I don’t know why you are so insistent about all of this,” I said as I jogged to keep up with my long-legged girlfriend. “You were against this whole thing in the beginning.”
“I know,” Hailey said, giving me a quick look over her shoulder. “But after everything, I just think it’s important, you know.”
“Hang on,” I said as I reached out and grabbed the crook of her arm. I swung the soldier around to face me and made her stand still for a moment. “What do you mean by that?”
Hailey released a heavy sigh and stared up at the sky as if what she wanted to say was written up in the clouds. “I mean, I’ve been thinking about what Sasha said. And I think she might have a point.”
I blinked back my surprise. “Did I miss something? Did hell freeze over? Are there pigs flying, and I didn’t notice?”
I moved my head about, dramatically looking for flying pigs when Hailey scoffed and took my chin in his hand. I let her touch still me and offered her an encouraging smile.
“I can learn from other demigods, thank you very much,” Hailey said firmly. She released me, but her grip moved down to take my hands in hers. “After watching you these past two years, with all that you have done--”
“That we’ve done,” I corrected, stepping in.
“But you’ve done the most,” she countered. “I wanted everyone to know what you had done. I was so proud of you for using your talents and knowledge to help others. I wanted to brag on you.”
I looked at the ground as a b
lush crept up to my ears. But Hailey wouldn’t let me look away. She cupped my cheek in her hand and directed my face back up to hers, so she could look me directly in the eye.
“When Sasha talked about the stories being the way we immortalized the heroes, I realized that she was right,” Hailey continued. “We need the stories, and we need ways to share them. Drama is just one of the many ways to do that.”
“So, you want to make a play about all of my heroic feats?” I teased.
“You know what I mean,” Hailey said with a sigh. “I think that we should keep the tradition going. Just because it’s not fighting with a weapon, or defeating the enemies directly, we defeat them each time we share the stories of our ancestors.”
“And I think you should tell the Stratego all of that,” I said as I stood up on my tiptoes to give her a quick peck on the cheek. “Word for word.”
“Even about how proud I am of your heroic adventures?” Hailey said, only half-joking as the corners of her eyes crinkled into a smile.
“Sure, why not?” I said with a shrug. I turned so that we were side by side, continuing our walk along the path. “Maybe he’ll give me some respect for once.”
“Cameron,” Hailey said, like a scolding parent.
“What?” I countered. “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”
Hailey shook her head disappointedly. “I know the two of you don’t get along.”
“That’s the understatement of the century,” I grumbled, but Hailey continued on.
“But you have another two years here,” Hailey warned. “And he’s going to continue as the Stratego whether you like it or not. Hopefully, you both will find a way to get along.”
“I hope for that, too,” I assured my girlfriend. “But I’m afraid I’m the only one. He doesn’t really want to hear what I have to say most of the time.”
“Well,” Hailey said with a squeeze of my hand. “Maybe he’ll listen this time.”
Then the daughter of Apollo dropped my hand and picked up the pace. I broke into a run to keep up with her, knowing that we were liberal enough with our time already. Together, we sped to the Elemental Offical’s building, where we would meet our other girlfriends Jade and Daniella, and our friend Bethany. A handful of other children of Dionysus would be there as well.
