Ch. 12 Revelation
823 Words
I hadn’t even hung up the phone with Hades when I pulled into the university parking lot, the weight of the situation pressing down on me with every step. I moved quickly, the feeling of dread crawling under my skin, knowing that time was slipping away. Hades had sent a message confirming his golem had arrived and was waiting in his office. But before I could address that, I needed answers.
I veered off toward James’s office, my mind racing. The moment I knocked on the door, I was met with a muffled “Come in.” I opened it to find James, hunched over his desk, the room swallowed by piles of open books, pages scattered like a hurricane had swept through them.
I couldn’t help but smile despite everything. “You look busy.”
James didn’t look up right away, but when he did, his eyes lit up with the kind of excitement that only a true scholar could possess. “Damon! Where did you find this? I’ve only seen this mentioned once, and it was in the actual tomb of Osiris!”
A chill slid down my spine as he motioned to the photo I’d taken earlier. “Oh? So you know what it means?”
“Yes!” He rushed to my side, grabbing a battered photo album from the corner of his desk. It was one of those old-school albums, a rarity in this digital age. His fingers flipped through it with almost frantic energy. He stopped at a picture, pointed at it, and looked at me with a grin that didn’t match the growing unease coiling in my gut.
I leaned in, “And that means?”
James’s voice was almost reverent as he spoke. “It means the forgotten. The title 'Mother of the Forgotten'—or, as she’s also known, the goddess of grief and loss.” His voice wavered with giddiness. “This is a discovery of the ages!”
I took a step back, my stomach sinking. *Grief and loss*? The title felt wrong—unnervingly wrong. I fought to keep my voice steady. “But being the mother of the forgotten and the goddess of grief and loss... aren’t those two different things? How can you be so sure?”
James didn’t seem to notice the tension in my voice. “Well, there are ancient scrolls that claim Isis was not just a native Egyptian goddess. She was worshiped by different cultures and beliefs! This—this *proves* the theory. It confirms something we’ve only guessed at for centuries!”
I barely heard the rest of his words. My thoughts reeled, my mind grasping for a thread of clarity. *The mother of the forgotten*. What did that mean for Lilly? What was she? *A goddess of grief and loss*... That could only mean one thing.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “The mother of the forgotten... which religion? Which belief system?”
James’s face lit up even more, his excitement palpable as he responded, “She’s a forgotten goddess of old—once a wife to a mortal man before being banished from the realm of the Garden of Eden. That’s where she’s from!”
I felt like the ground had been pulled from under me. My breath caught, my pulse racing as the words struck me like a thunderclap. Banished from the Garden of Eden? *The realm of the Titans*? A wife to a Titan? The air around me turned thick, suffocating, and the room seemed to spin.
“Damon? Are you alright? Do you need me to take you to your office? Rest?” James’s voice seemed distant, his concern almost muted in the haze of shock that gripped me.
I shook my head, forcing myself to focus. “No... thank you. I’ll be fine.”
But I wasn’t fine. Nothing felt fine. This discovery—that Lilly was tied to the forgotten, to the Titans—was more than I could process. I turned without another word, my thoughts a whirlwind. I had to reach my brother. I had to tell him. Lilly wasn’t just *anyone*. She was *the* mother of the forgotten. A goddess of grief. A Titan’s wife. My fated partner. And this revelation, this truth, was like a dark, weighty truth pressing down on me.
My office. I needed to get to my office.
I couldn’t breathe.
I burst through my office door, barely managing to keep my footing. My legs threatened to give out as the weight of the revelation crushed down on me. Just as I teetered on the edge of collapse, strong arms shot out and caught me, lifting me back to my feet.
"Damon," Hades’s voice cut through the haze in my mind, sharp and clear.
I barely had time to steady myself before I turned to him, urgency spilling from every word. "Hadrian, we have a problem. A serious problem."
- Writer
