by Simon Archer
“None of the rest of you have to get up at five in the morning to yell at the first years and force them to run!” she protested as she stood up and pointed around the room.
“Dear gods, Ashley, I’m the daughter of Aphrodite, and I don’t complain this much,” Genesis said as she rubbed her temples.
“I’m just saying it’s absurd,” Ashley said defiantly.
“All of us think it’s absurd,” Rhys said, placating the daughter of Ares before the woman smashed a hole through the table. “You’re just the loudest one.”
“I don’t think it’s absurd,” Jasmine argued. She held out her hand to indicate where I was sitting. “From everything Cameron told us, we have a very good reason to be here.”
When I finally managed to temper some of the early complaints--and get Jade to bring in some coffee for the particularly grumpy Officials--I was able to relay the whole story to them. However, I did have a problem when the branch leaders walked in after Jade left.
The thing that threw me off the most was their lack of uniformity. Three out of the four branch leaders walked in the same manner that they had always done. However, one of them was limping. It was the Oura leader, Alanna, who had winked at me in the library earlier than evening. The limp was subtle, but I noticed the way her balance shifted to favor her left side, as though something was wrong with her right leg. Not only that, but she held her right arm across her body, as if it were supposed to be in a sling.
A memory flashed from earlier. I thought about how I struck the invisible figure in the library with my two metal rods. I whacked the arm holding the book while simultaneously attacking the opposite leg.
Mistrust flared in my stomach like bad heartburn. I swallowed it as best I could because I knew that I still didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute but my gut feeling and the injuries before me were enough to convince myself.
I had to bite my tongue and wait for the right moment to confront the branch leaders, Alanna specifically. Between her and Holly, I knew that something wasn’t right with those new leaders.
“What are they doing here?” I asked as I used my thumb to indicate the four new leaders who stood silently up against the wall.
“I asked them to come,” the Stratego said simply as if this were a normal occurrence.
“Why?” I wondered, sharpening the word as finely with my voice as I would a blade on the grinder.
“To better educate them on the ongoings of the Academy and the Elemental Military,” the Stratego said as he teepeed his fingers. “I do this occasionally with all of the branch leaders. You might recall the last ones sitting in on some meeting where you were also in attendance.”
I bit back my response. I had to pick my battles, and I knew that this upcoming one was going to be quite the climb so I decided to let the discomforting presence of the branch leaders slide. I knew they weren’t allowed to say anything anyway, so I just pretended they weren’t there as I began.
I talked about my theory about needing to find Hephaestus in order to complete the Ultimate Weapon. How I couldn’t do it without a god’s help. The fact that he needed to bless the weapon with their magical abilities was crucial. It had been the same with Aphrodite’s girdle, or Hades and the Helm, even the Moirai and the tools. I could only make the tools, I didn’t have the ability to infuse them with the necessary powers.
Then I went on to tell them about the Fates and their note, even going so far as to pass it around the room. Some of the Officials regarded it with the proper amount of attention whereas others, like Emma and Alya simply passed it along to the next demigod without so much as a glance.
After I presented them with all of the facts, I laid out my proposal. “I want to sail to the island of Ogygia and find Hephaestus and bring him back so that he can help me finish the Ultimate Weapon. And I would like to take three fellow students with me.”
Cue the eruption.
Ever since I spoke those words, it was a feeding frenzy of arguments and debates. While I had only been an Elemental Official for a couple of weeks, I couldn’t imagine this level of chaos in the boardroom. It was uncanny how these grown ass adults just talked over one another. No one was listening. Only myself, the Stratego, and the four branch leaders stayed silent.
There was a clear divide between those who agreed with me and those who didn’t. The line was the same as when we were trying to get Kari reinstated.
“We simply can’t let an Elemental Official leave campus like that,” Rhys, the daughter of Demeter, said as she waved her hands about like an Italian chef. “Especially one who isn’t even a graduate yet.”
“He hasn’t finished his studies,” Effie, the daughter of Hades, pointed out. “He isn’t even authorized to leave campus yet.”
“But Cameron is an Elemental Official,” Brea pointed out with a wave of her finger in the air. “He has the same rights that we do.”
“This is so unprecedented,” Emma chimed in as she rubbed her monocle on her robe.
“What about the three additional students he wants to take with him?” Effie added, her eyebrows lifting as she thought of another argument to make. “Even if Cameron is permitted because he is an Elemental Official surely the other three students aren’t allowed to leave.”
“Can we spare any soldiers to go with him?” Jasmine asked sensibly.
“They are all out in the field, on the front lines,” Cyrene, the daughter of Artemis, argued as she threw her hand out to the side, nearly knocking her fellow Official in the head. She didn’t even pay attention to her motions. “Is this mission really worth pulling them off where they are needed most?”
“This is where we need them most,” Makayla said as she pounded her fist into the table. “If Cameron is right, then this mission will give us the Ultimate Weapon. Once we have that the war is ours for the taking.”
“That’s the whole thing though, isn’t it?” the Stratego said, finally interrupting. “‘If Cameron is right’ is the caveat for this whole situation.”
“Do you doubt my information, Stratego?” I snarled, feeling the heat of the debate surge in my own chest.
“It wouldn’t be the first time you haven’t been truthful with us,” the Stratego countered, his face never moving.
“I’ve always done right by the Academy and the demigod soldiers,” I insisted. “Even when your stupid rules would have left some of them to die.”
“Oh, the rules are stupid now, are they?” Effie jumped in, snapping up my insult. She turned my words into ammo against me. “Maybe we should use those rules to ground you and prevent you from leaving the campus.”
“Ground me?” I balked. “What am I to you? A child to be punished?”
“A child, yes,” Alya chimed in even though she continued to read some book she had brought with her, not even bothering to properly participate in the conversation.
I released an aggravated growl and ran my fingers through my hair. I wasn’t the child in this situation, they were! I could easily just have gone off campus without asking their permission. But this is what I got for trying to do the right thing. A whole lot of bureaucratic bullshit.
I turned my head to the side, just so I didn’t have to look at any of the Elemental Officials as they continue to debate the same three points over and over again. My eyes caught sight of the branch leaders that were standing silently against the wall. My eyebrows pinched together as I watched their faces, light up with glee as if they were enjoying our turmoil.
The sight creeped me out. I resented them being here, having to watch their leader dissolve into stubborn babies. But the more I looked at them, the more I realized that their presence was actually a blessing.
I looked back at my fellow Officials and raised my voice to ensure that I could be heard. “What if I took the branch leaders?”
As if someone had stopped a record player, the whole room went quiet. After several minutes of consistent arguing and yelling, the silence was eerie in the way it settled around t
he room like a fog. I wanted someone to respond to me but when no one seemed to be able to find the words, I decided to barrel on.
“One of the issues is the fact that I’m not allowed to leave campus because I’m still a student,” I started, trying to rationalize each point for them as if they were kindergarteners learning how to sound out a word. “But if we lean on the fact that I’m an Elemental Official rather than a student, you won’t let me bring my student friends because they aren’t allowed off campus either. You also won’t pull any soldiers off the front lines which I get. But the branch leaders,” I used my finger to point at them as though I was a lawyer prosecuting them in a court of law, “are graduated soldiers, aren’t on the front lines, and are allowed to leave campus with me.”
I eyed the room to see if any of them had caught on yet. I wanted to get a sense of their reactions, because as far as I was concerned it was a foolproof plan.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the Stratego said suddenly.
“What. The. Hell?” I said, spelling out each word dramatically because I was too shocked to speak any other way. “Why the hell not?”
“Because we need them to stay on campus,” the Stratego said.
I glared at the son of Zeus across the table. Something was weird about his voice and the look in his eye. It was monotonous and devoid of any sort of emotion. There was a vague expression across his face and part of me felt like he couldn’t even hear my actual proposition.
Suspicion crawled up my spine. I did what I could to stay as neutral as possible, but I sensed that something was very off about this situation. My eyes traveled around the room, even though I kept my head in the direction of the Stratego.
I didn’t understand what their hesitation was. The whole situation seemed out of character for the lot of them. I had been in my fair share of meetings over the last several weeks and the Elemental Officials were always cordial. While they disagreed, there was never any outright fighting like this.
“Why do you need them on campus?” I questioned, my words coming out slower than I wanted them to. It revealed more of my suspicion than I wanted it to.
“We need them to watch over the campus,” the Stratego answered.
“But why?” I pressed, trying to get a more detailed answer out of him.
“We’ve always had branch leaders,” the Stratego recited as if he were reading from an old manual. “They are important to the system of the Academy.”
“More important than me going after Hephaestus who’s going to help me make the Ultimate Weapon?” I questioned, cocking my head dramatically to the side. “Really? That’s what you’re going to go with?”
“Are you questioning my judgment?” the Stratego snapped.
“Uh, yeah, I am,” I snapped right back, not in the mood to take this kind of abuse from him. Especially when he was the one acting so weird.
“How dare you!” the Stratego growled.
“Okay, but what about the whole, ‘I’m not going to let an untrained son of Hephaestus ruin the chance of winning the war,’” I mocked by lowering my voice and buffing out my arms dramatically in the weakest impression of the Stratego. I dropped it to continue my rant. “Or whatever the hell you said to me that day in your office? Why are you all making it so hard for me to accomplish this?”
I looked around the room and tried to meet the eye of each of the Elemental Officials in turn but they wouldn’t look at me. I couldn’t tell if they were afraid of me or if it was something else, but no one, not even Jasmine could look me in the face.
“Isn’t this the whole point?” I asked them, addressing the room at large. “Wasn’t the whole deal to get me to make the Ultimate Weapon so that we could have an advantage over the monsters and win the war? I don’t understand why you all won’t support every initiative in order to do that.”
I threw my hand out towards the door to indicate the outside world. “What about all of the demigods on the frontlines? Don’t we want them to come home? How many more lives do we want to lose? This war has been going on for too long and simply because Eris’s pride was wounded. Isn’t enough, enough?”
Feeling like a coach giving a pep talk, I waited for the cheering to start. I thought it had been an emboldened and motivating speech, especially since I hadn’t planned for it at all. I honestly thought this whole process would be a lot easier and it still shocked the hell out of me that it wasn’t.
“I think we should vote on it,” the Stratego announced to the room.
“Really?” I balked, not bothering to lower my voice. “Does this really need a vote?”
But the Stratego ignored me. He cleared his throat and spoke aloud to the group. “All in favor of Cameron not setting out to Ogygia to find Hephaestus, raise your hand.”
“Hang on,” I tried to stop everything, spreading my arms out like I was signalling a safe runner. “That’s not how we vote. We’re supposed to go around the room--”
But the dozen hands silenced me instantly. Every single one of them voted against me. I stared, my jaw slack, at the near unanimous vote. The Elemental Officials were silent and stoic, looking like statues as they held up their hands. Even Jasmine, Genesis, and Makayla who had been on my side in the middle of the argument.
Chills ran up and down my arms, sprouting goosebumps. Something was very wrong about this situation. I couldn’t tell what it was but this wasn’t normal. Not only should I have gotten some votes, they completely abandoned their normal voting procedure which I had seen when they voted to have Kari reinstated. It was as if someone had hijacked the whole meeting.
My gut turned me in the direction of the four branch leaders. Acting as one entity, they eyed me. I felt like a dying animal and they were vultures, waiting for me to take my last breath so they could devour my carcass.
“Looks as though you lost,” Holly said. “I don’t think there’s any reason for us to stay here, do you?”
Instinctively, I took a step back. “No, I don’t,” I said, playing along though my voice was stiff and hollow.
I didn’t know how but the four branch leaders were controlling the situation. They were controlling the Elemental Officials who were supposed to be the most powerful demigods on campus. That was no longer the case it seemed.
“Meeting adjourned,” the Stratego said suddenly, slapping his hand on the table.
One by one, the Officials rose to their feet and stiffly walked out of the room, like robots coming off the assembly line. As I watched them go, my breathing became labored and panic clouded my thoughts. I decided to take up the end of the processional, walking in time with others until I could get safely out of the building.
With each step, I plotted my way out of there. Not just out of the eye of the branch leaders, which creeped me out, but out of the Academy. I didn’t care what the council had voted, either knowingly or unknowingly. I was leaving to find my father and there wasn’t anyone who could stop me.
Eventually, the line of Officials dispersed outside of the building, while the branch leaders took up the rear. The chilly evening air made my lungs freeze inside of my chest, but I focused on my steps, one by one.
I didn’t know where we were walking, but I knew I had to divert quickly or I was going to be caught up in something dangerous. I didn’t know what the branch leaders were doing, but whatever it was wasn’t affecting me for some reason. I made a mental note to think about the logistics later. My focus had to be my escape plan.
My eyes flicked up to the Eternal Flame that hovered above us in one of the street lamps. There were about six or seven I could see within range.
I’d never tried to communicate with more than one flame before now, but if there was ever a time to try…
I reached out my thoughts to the Eternal Flame and begged them to rescue me. I needed them to provide a distraction. I promised to release them all if they just gave me a chance to escape.
Sensing my anxiety, the Flames responded automatically. Like little fighting
spirits, they bounced about, ready to wreak havoc. I gave myself another two breaths before I flung out my hands, simultaneously releasing all of the lamp doors.
The Eternal Flames exploded from their cages and whirled around like hyperactive fireflies. They latched onto the dry barren trees and devoured the wood in a feast of fire. Others took to the patches of grass not covered by snow. Because the Eternal Flame couldn’t be put out, they melted the snow and spread themselves further and further.
The last one seemed to be the most intuitive of the bunch. It sensed the source of danger and latched onto it immediately. Suddenly, Holly’s hair lit up like a bonfire.
The Elemental Officials stood still as the chaos erupted but the branch leaders panicked. They jumped around Holly as she danced like a headless chicken. The Eternal Flame burned her scalp. I didn’t even take a second to enjoy the scene. I broke into a run and bolted across the sea of flame.
I didn’t look back as I shouted my dogs’ names aloud. “Khryseos and Argyreos! I need you!”
Instantly the two dobermans appeared, running alongside me. Khryseos had his tongue out, flopping about as if we were on a happy jog, whereas Argyreos growled at the back of his throat, serious as ever.
“I need you to get Jade, Bethany, and Daniella,” I huffed as I dashed out of the quad. “Tell them to meet me at the lake now. It’s an emergency.”
Without another word, the dogs vanished out of sight. Their disappearance didn’t even startle me as I continued my sprint towards the lake. I had only half a plan as I hurtled forward. It was risky as hell, but it was the only way I could think of to get off campus safely.
While I hated the idea of leaving the other students in the hands of whatever evil the branch leaders were, I knew that the best thing was to get to Hephaestus. When I had the Ultimate Weapon made, the demigods would actually have a fighting chance.
Before I left the wreckage of the quad, I reached out and summoned up a spare bit of Eternal Flame. A teardrop-shaped flame zipped over to my hand and hovered above my palm to light the way because in the middle of the night like this, there wouldn’t be any light by the lake. I needed to see where I was going and my friends needed to be able to find me.
