Forge of the Gods 4

by Simon Archer

  “I’m sorry he betrayed your trust like that,” I said as I leaned forward and kissed her bare shoulder. “You don’t deserve that.”

  She sighed deeply and put her hand on my face, stroking my cheek with her thumb. “Oh Cameron, you’re too good for this life.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, cocking my head to one side.

  “I was going to keep you here but you’ve been so kind to me and I haven’t needed to feed you a love potion or anything,” Calypso said as she ran her hands over her face. “I think it’s time that I held up my end of the bargain.”

  Something flickered in the back of my memory. It seemed like an eternity ago but I knew I had come to the island for another reason than to see the beautiful goddess. There were other people with me, I was sure of it.

  “I’m going to release you now,” she said sadly, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. Then she leaned forward and kissed me on the lips, just a brush of a feather.

  Suddenly, I remembered why I had come to the island. It was to find my father. I had my girlfriends waiting for me and the entirety of the demigods to save from the wrath of Eris.

  Calypso flinched away from me as she saw the memories return. I would have been lying if I said I wasn’t angry with her. But as I looked at the goddess, that kind woman was all I saw. She was lonely and had been betrayed before. While I didn’t condone her methods, I could understand her motivation.

  I leaned over and took her hand in mine. “I’ve enjoyed my time with you Calypso, and you know I say that honestly now that your effect on me is gone. But I need to see this through and finish my mission. I have to find my father.”

  “You’re too good for this world, Cameron,” Calypso said, swiping at the corner of her eye. “I will take you to him. Come with me.”

  “And my friends,” I reminded her. “I would like to see them too.”

  The goddess sighed, the first sign of disappointment or resentment I had seen from her. “Fine, I’ll bring them along too.”

  Sooner than I would have thought, I was reunited with Bethany, Jade, and Daniella, who seemed in good spirits. Calypso had provided them comfortable lodging on the beach.

  “It was like a spa day!” Bethany said enthusiastically. I was happy to see that they had been cared for, but all of us had to get back to reality and to the mission at hand.

  Calypso led us through the jungle as night fell upon us. In the distance, I saw a flicker of light, unmistakably fire. I would recognize it anywhere. We entered the clearing and there was a man sitting on a stump across the way.

  It was a chunky gentleman, with a healthy amount of fat on him, though some semblance of muscles poked through. He wore no shirt, only bathing shorts with Crocs. Tufts of bright red hair crawled up his thick arms and cascaded onto his bare chest. He may have been bald, but he had a beard that was braided into three strands and was the color of fire.

  My hair color.

  The last thing I noticed was his eyes. They were the same crystal blue that I saw in the mirror every day. Even the same almond shape.

  “Hi Hephaestus, I’m Cameron, your son.”

  “Cameron!” the god of blacksmiths shouted, his baritone voice booming across the jungle. “Pleasure to meet you boy. And you’ve brought friends! Come, come, come and join me around the fire.”

  I didn’t hesitate to accept his invitation. I plopped down on a nearby stump, letting my pack fall by the wayside. My girlfriends were much more resistant. It took me taking Jade by the hand and dragging her down next to me before Daniella and Bethany followed suit.

  Soon, we were gathered around a fire, eating food from our packs. Calypso did offer us a scrumptious looking meal that definitely had Jade itching for some taste tests. However, us demigods were gun-shy about accepting any food offered to us by the gods. While this wasn’t the Underworld, and there were no pomegranates to be seen, we all politely refused and bit into our rations.

  On the other hand, Calypso and Hephaestus devoured every part of the goddess’s feast. Hephaestus chomped on the back leg of a pig in the most disgusting fashion. Seeing him sitting across from me was the most surreal experience.

  If I had any doubts before, which I didn’t because we clearly looked like we shared DNA, Hephaestus bent down towards the pyramid of sticks and blew on it like a child blowing out their candles on a birthday cake. Immediately, a spray of small sparks flew from his mouth and landed on the wood. It burst into flames immediately. Calypso clapped her hands together like a proud mother.

  So he had magical fire powers, unnaturally red hair, and bright blue eyes. Did I need any more evidence?

  When I had always pictured my father for some reason the man never had a face. I couldn’t form the necessary features to make him real in my mind’s eye. Eventually, when I was a teenager, I stopped thinking about him altogether. It wasn’t until I got recruited to the Academy and told that he was a literal god, that that faceless image popped back into my head.

  I didn’t know how to handle this actual man, or immortal rather. He gnawed on the pig’s leg without a care in the world, pinkish juice running down into his beard. Calypso reached over and patted him on the head like a dog.

  The pit in my stomach just wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t identify it. Was it disappointment? Resentment? Anger? No, none of those seemed right because I knew what all of those feelings felt like in my body. This was a hole, swallowing my intestines. As though I was on the verge of a cliff, debating whether or not to jump off without a safety harness. It was a sixth sense that something, somewhere was about to change.

  Hephaestus took a break from his pig’s leg and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He leaned forward, resting his elbow on his knee, and looked at me over the top of the fire.

  I proceeded to explain to Hephaestus what we were doing there. When I laid out the whole story for him, he didn’t say a single word. Though his eyes did get wider and wider as I spoke. Not only did I introduce myself, but I also introduced my friends and told him why we were there.

  “We need you to come back with us,” I asked, getting straight to the point. “We need to end this and make the Ultimate Weapon before the whole campus, maybe the whole world, dissolves into chaos.”

  Hephaestus blinked once, twice at me, a confused expression on his face as if I had spoken a completely foreign language.

  “Did you hear me?” I checked, not really wanting to repeat myself again.

  “I did,” he said, his voice coming out part words, part grunt. “But I think I have some explaining to do before we galavant off.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “Then let’s hear it.” I put my hands on my hips expectantly, wanting him to start spilling.

  “So your name’s Cameron?” he asked, his eyelids blinking slowly as if he was drunk and seeing two of me.

  “Yeah, Cameron Alpin,” I said slowly. “Uh, Andrea’s son.”

  “Oh Andrea,” Hephaestus said as he leaned back on his stump. He slapped his thigh and licked his lips. “Gods, I liked her. She was beautiful and good in bed too. Her ass was the perfect size for me, you know.” The god held up his hands to demonstrate cupping my mom’s ass, which was an image I never, ever needed.

  I blinked rapidly and shook my head as if I could clear the image from my memory. Bethany choked on her crackers and Daniella had to slap her on the back a couple of times.

  “Did you know she turned out to be a descendant of the Oracle of Delphi?” Hephaestus said as he stuck his neck out towards me, his eyes bugging out of his head too. He raised a single finger and ticked it back and forth. “If I had known that, I wouldn’t have slept with her in the first place. That was a big no no with Apollo.”

  “I can imagine,” I grumbled.

  The more I talked with the god of blacksmiths, the more my heart sank. It had been unrealistic to think that this would be some grand father-son reunion. I knew it was childish to think that he would accept me with open arms. But I had hoped that he wouldn
’t be a jerk at least. Part of me scolded myself. I should have known better. All of the gods I had met were selfish in one way or another. Even Phaethusa had her arrogant moments. Immortal beings didn’t need to care about us mortals. It didn’t seem to be in their makeup.

  “Yeah, I found that little factoid out when we were in bed one night and we’d just finished the longest round of sex I’d had in a while,” he said as he made a sweeping gesture with his hand.

  My mouth went dry and I tried not to faint right then and there.

  “And she managed to keep up the whole time. Not bad for a mortal, you know what I mean, Callie, huh?” he said as he elbowed the goddess. Calypso giggled knowingly, with a coy grin sliding onto her face as she glanced in my direction.

  I coughed, trying not to think back on my time with Calypso. As much as I wanted to relive those memories, there were more pressing matters at hand. “You were talking about my mom, Andrea.”

  Hephaestus seemed to regain consciousness and didn’t look too happy about it. “Yeah, right, uh, she was good in the sack is what I’m saying. But I couldn’t sleep with her again after she made that prophecy.”

  “Wait, what prophecy?” I said, unconsciously leaning forward to hear more.

  “You know,” Hephaestus said as he brushed off my question with a large hand wave. “The one about the Ultimate Weapon. The reason that you’re here.”

  “My mom gave that prophecy?” I balked. My heart skipped a beat, and not in a happy way. I thought I was going to fall over right there. Jade must have sensed it too because she put a steadying hand on my leg, bringing me back to reality.

  “Sure did,” Hephaestus said as he picked up the other back leg of the pig. He took a huge bite out of it, the sound like a broken zipper as he yanked flesh off the bone with his teeth. “So I left her and went to tell Apollo, because you know, he’s the prophecy guy.”

  “Right,” I prompted, circling my hands in the air indicating that he should continue. “What did Apollo say?”

  “Well, he told me that I needed to play my part, that it was the will of the Fates!” Hephaestus said the last words in a mocking tone, implying that Apollo had a very effeminate way of speaking. I saw Bethany’s lips curl at the blatant stereotype and this time it was Daniella giving our friend a reassuring pat on the leg to calm her down.

  “So I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll give this life-controlling elemental blade a go’. How hard can it be?” Hephaestus gave an exaggerated shrug. A bit of the pig meat flew off the bone and landed in the dirt. The god paused his story a minute to reach down and pick up the piece, plopping it into his mouth.

  Jade’s face went white at the disgusting sight. As the seconds ticked down, I could tell that I wasn’t the only one displeased with my father and his behavior.

  “So I went in search for some materials and tried a couple of different designs, but then!” Hephaestus lifted his arms in the air, not unlike a gameshow contestant winning the final prize. All four of us soldiers jerked back in surprise in his sudden change to a more exuberant tone. “I realized that it wasn’t my job to make the blade at all.”

  “That’s right, it’s not,” I assured him. “You have to bless it with your powers so that it can become a life-controlling elemental blade.”

  “Wrong!” Hephaestus said as he pointed an enthusiastic finger at me. He cackled out a laugh, which Calypso joined in even though it was clear that she had no idea what they were laughing about. Hephaestus stopped abruptly and Calypso faded her own laughter. There was an awkward silence before the god continued his tale.

  “You see, it doesn’t mention a god except for ‘a child of the betrayed’, so I said to myself, ‘Hephaestus, I got a baby on the way’,” Hephaestus said as he feigned talking to an invisible person next to him. “I could make that child the child in the prophecy so I don’t have to make anything. They do.”

  “That doesn’t make any--” I started to protest but the god was on a role so his booming voice barrelled over me.

  “I’ve got to betray the prophecy so that my child can be the child of the betrayed,” Hephaestus went on, the pride in himself coming through with every word. “So I abandoned all searches for materials, swore to myself that I wouldn’t get involved with elemental blade making, and hide out. That way, when you grew up, you could properly be the child betrayed by their father. Pretty clever, huh? So, you’re welcome.”

  The god leaned back triumphantly and put his hands behind his head, resting them in his palms until he realized that he still had the pig leg in his hand. He wiped some of the stray grease off the back of his head. No one said anything and we watched him do all of this, too stunned to speak.

  It was ultimately Hephaestus who broke the silence. “Oh and another thing! I wanted to give you this.”

  Against my better judgement, something swelled in my chest. Maybe this token from my father would make the whole thing worth it, considering I had a sinking suspicion that all of this had been a colossal waste of time so far.

  Hephaestus leaned to one side and pulled something out of his pocket. He grunted, sniffed, and then held it out to me from across the fire. “Here you go.”

  I took the item, which was no bigger than my pinky finger. It was a small statue of Hephaestus, like one of those figurines children would play with with a circular base so it could stand up. It was made completely out of metal and didn’t have a speck of color on it.

  “Just a little something for your forge,” Hephaestus said, feeling a little too proud of himself, as if he’d just handed me a check for a million dollars rather than a child’s toy.

  “What is it?” Bethany whispered to Jade.

  My Oracle powers answered as I slipped it in my pocket, trying not to let my disappointment show. “It’s an Algana. They were small statues followers of Hephaestus would make to bring them luck in the forge. It’s said that when blessed by Hephaestus, it helps your hammer strike true so you don’t make a mistake.”

  “Exacto kiddo!” Hephaestus said lamely. “Now, I still think my plan of making you the child of the betrayed is the true gift, but that’s just something a little extra.

  “Yeah, about that,” Bethany said, sucking her teeth. “Is it just me or did that not make a lick of sense?”

  “It makes perfect sense!” Hephaestus exclaimed. “At least to me it does.” Then he took another bite, looking rather satisfied with himself.

  “So you decided to supposedly help me by actively choosing not to help me?” I clarified, trying to find some line of logic in his thinking, but it felt like trying to find a flashlight in the dark.

  “Pretty much,” the god of blacksmithing said with a shrug and a full mouth.

  “That is the most… ” I couldn’t finish my sentence, I was so baffled.

  “Brilliant thing you’ve ever--” Hephaestus tried to fill in the blank but it was my turn to barrel over him.

  “Boneheaded thing I’ve ever heard!” I found myself shouting as I rose to my feet. My remaining food fell to the ground but I didn’t care. Jade tried to tug at my sleeve, getting me to sit back down but I wasn’t having any of it. I jerked out of her grip and set my sights on Hephaestus.

  “Even if what you did make any sense, you’re telling me that you would rather find the most remote island in Greek mythology, and hide out than help your own child save thousands, potentially millions of lives?” I shouted at him. I didn’t care who or what heard me in the forest. Years of abandonment issues and resentment exploded from me in a flurry of anger and frustration. “You abandoned my mother, abandoned me, abandoned your jobs as a god, and ran away. And you did it all on purpose? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “I don’t see what the problem is,” Hephaestus said in a challenging tone as he licked his lips.

  “The problem is that those are the actions of a coward,” I spat at him. “Yeah, that’s it. I’ve been looking for the word this whole time to try to describe what a rude, inconsiderate, egotistical idiot you are, b
ut I think I can sum all of that up in one word. You are a coward.”

  That word seemed to hit home. The god rose to his feet, and I didn’t bother backing away. There was a fire between the two of us, and I clearly had gotten my mother’s height, because I still looked down at him by an inch. I knew the gods could change their appearance but was grateful that Hephaestus was too lazy to do so. I liked being able to look down on him, a man that I had admired from afar. One that I thought had been captured or injured, something that would prevent him from being present in my life for the last twenty-six years. Nope, turned out that he was just a dick.

  “How dare you challenge me, child? Your own father?” He glared at me with a blue fire burning in his irises. “I made you what you are.”

  “You did nothing to make me,” I threw back at him, refusing to step down. “You may have shagged my mother, given me your hair and eyes, but you did nothing to make me into the man, the warrior, the person I am today.”

  “What about your powers, huh?” Hephaestus asked, his voice slipping into the tone of a petulant child, trying to hold onto an argument that they were losing. “I gave you those too. Where would you be without those?”

  “I don’t know!” I screamed at him, fully losing my temper. “Maybe at home with my mom, living a normal life. Not trying to save the world while my deadbeat dad jerks off on a beach for twenty years while the world burns around him.”

  “You see the thing is, Cameron,” Hephaestus said as he stepped directly into the fire between us, closing the gap. It didn’t burn him or affect him in any way, except to make him all the more intimidating as the flames gathered around him. “I don’t care if the world burns. I’m a god. I’ll survive, along with all of the other immortals. And the world’s going to burn like it has before.” He scoffed and the fire under his feet flickered in response. “And it will burn again. So save it, don’t save it. It doesn’t matter to me.”

  “It matters to me!” I shouted as I pounded against my chest. Tears unexpectedly sprung to my eyes, and I let them run freely. “This is my world. My time. My home. And you won’t even help your own son save it.”