Chosen by The Fates: The prophecy

Chapter XIII - Lies, betrayals and murders

We were all gathered in the underground ops room, the air was thick with tension and the occasional stench of fear. It was clear from the moment they stepped into the room that it was hard for them to resist the urge to submit. This wasn’t going to end well, their fear and anger were urging me to bathe in their blood. For some reason, ever since Jax had mentioned it, I really wanted to do it. Not in my mom’s blood though. Bigger fish to fry.

The people I grew up with and looked up to were now sitting in these chairs, terrified by the dangerous aura Devora and I were exuding, nothing like the confident and happy people that raised me. The bitter taste of betrayal was lingering in my mouth just as strong as the sour taste of their fear.

“Prometheus, why don’t you tell us all why we’re here at five o’clock in the morning, when we could be in bed with our MATES?” I accentuated the last word.

“Killian, it’s not what it looks like…” he started, but I quickly cut him off.

“King Killian.” I corrected him, showing no emotions.

“What?” he asked, confused.

“It’s King Killian for you. You and the likes of you are mere subjects. As we all saw, you had to fight your urges to submit. Pointless. You will all kneel. Now.” My command rolled off my tongue without so much as a thought. I had enough. I needed to know the truth. I could see the converted hate in the looks some of them were giving me as they were kneeling. Prometheus’ head bowed down and stood there, avoiding everyone’s eyes. For Ambro, Selene and Des, however, it was different. Their guilt was written all over their faces. Kora was looking up at her kids with pain in her eyes, unsure if she was going to see them again. Circe’s face wasn’t showing any emotions and I was sure it was only a facade, meant to keep her from giving in to the humiliation they were experiencing. Helios and Hecate were holding each other’s hands and throwing glances that I did not know how to decipher. I could read the confusion, the anger and the hate in their eyes, but there was something else that I couldn’t identify. Hebe and Heracles were the first ones to kneel, their eyes also sparkled with the utmost hate and anger. However, what surprised me was that it wasn’t directed at me. Metis and Hephaestus both had equally opposing stances. Hephaestus’ attitude was generally hostile, his eyes gleaming with anger, his jaw clenching hard enough to break his teeth. Metis, on the other hand, was the most relaxed out of the room and somehow the only one that wasn’t kneeling.

“Metis, are you ignoring your King’s orders?” I asked her, gritting my teeth. Jax was snarling at the disrespect and begging to let him crush her heart. Immortal or not, you can’t survive without a heart. Or head for that matter.

“Who the f**k made you King? Last time I checked you were nothing but a mongrel, an abomination that should have been eliminated before you were even born. Pandora had a great idea, poor execution though.” This earned her growls from the whole room, even the already kneeling comrades of hers. Her smug smile was making Jax laugh, knowing without moving an inch I could have her heart in my hand. She may be a deity, but I was the chosen one. After the ascension, my powers exponentially grew, marking and mating with Devora further enhancing the strength of my ousia. I could tap into her ousia and use her abilities as my own, same as she could do with mine. They didn't know this yet, but a great indicator of this would have been their urge to show submission as soon as they faced us. In our world, the aura was an indicator of the strength a beast possesses and all other beasts could feel and recognise the hierarchy. The fact that she was able to defy my command let me know that she was burning through her ousia to counteract mine. “You and the other abomination, your so-called mate, shouldn’t walk the same ground as we do.” Her pseudo-confidence was starting to piss me off.

“Tell me, Metis. Who will miss you if you don’t make it home tonight?” It was now my turn to be smug. “Give me one good reason why you should live to see another day.” I said and crossed my hands over my chest. "Because as it stands right now, you'll be walking out of here feet first." I could feel an evil smile tugging at the corners of my lips.

"f**k you!” she spat angrily and clenched her fists ready to attack. She wasn’t sure if she should and staggered for a moment. I took advantage of her insecurity and with a quick jump I was in front of her, my hand all the way through her ribcage. I heard gasps from all around me and her eyes went wide at the revelation of what I'd done. I pulled my hand out, her heart still in my hand, and watched her limp body falling to the floor, her eyes still, wearing a look of horror. I let go of her heart, dropping it on the floor next to her body. I turned around, not bothering to look at the Impartials still kneeling in front of me. I took the handkerchief that Kerbe offered me and wiped my hands. It only smeared the blood around more without actually making any difference.

“And then there were eleven.” A smug smile reached my lips.

‘Were you able to get anything out of her?’ I asked Devora through the mindlink we had with the triplets.

‘Only slightly. I tapped into her memories and saw bits and pieces, not enough to put together. But you were right, I could see that much.’

“Alright, here’s how this is going to go. No one leaves my kingdom until the cat’s out of the bag. For every day that you spend here and do not provide useful information, I will torture you by siphoning your powers away until you become human.” I announced. “Then I will torture you until the brink of death, feed you my blood and torture you all over again until you beg me to let you die." I said unceremoniously and none of them dared speak.

‘Kerbe, see to it that they are taken to the underground prison and make sure they are all separated, their rooms magically sealed and soundproofed. They shouldn’t be able to communicate with each other. Do not dare leave this room, either of you. Get the teams to do it.’ he slightly nodded and got to it.

“Prometheus will stay here with us, while the rest of you will be imprisoned for the time being. When I decide I want to speak to you, I will. Until then you are my prisoners.” I saw them trying to resist and speak up but none of them did. Just as I finished, Stella, Ajax and the rest of my team and Kerbe’s came in and took the Impartials away as well as Metis' lifeless body.

“Stand up, have a seat, you're gonna be here for a while, so get comfortable." I said while I walked around the desk and poured myself a drink. I sat down in my chair and continued "I want you to start with the night my father died. I want you to tell me how he died, how Pandora died. How that damn seer got her hands on a stake made not only from the tree of life itself, but also olympian silver. I want to know everything, and I want to know it yesterday.” I was seething with rage while he was taking his f*****g time answering my questions. The fact that Devora was just as angry as I was, her anger pouring through our bond, wasn’t helping either. He got up and looked at me, his face defeated.

“I will tell you a story and then I will answer your questions, I promise." I nodded and waved my hand for him to proceed. "Long before this world existed, to get me free from Zeus’ chains, Circe had done the only thing she could think of. She had prayed to the Fates. She prayed day and night for help and they answered. The only thing they asked in return was that once I was free we would both become servants of the Fates. They were the ones that warned us about Ragnarok. The end had already started with Asgard and it wouldn’t have been long before it reached us. They warned us no one would listen and we would all perish with the coming of winter. Humans, supernatural and deities, all alike, for Ragnarök doesn't forgive anyone, the purification of the realms was absolute. The Fates were correct, no one listened, so we were forced to trap the Olympians in Pandora’s Box after transferring their power into objects that each of us could wear to aid us in the creation of the new world. The box was then sealed in the depths of Tartarus and the Purging spell was started. For the purging spell to work, the creatures that were too feral to be anything other than a threat to the new world had to perish with the coming of Ragnarök. The old world was then morphed into the New World, which was then split into Nezarches and Earth, the human world, whatever they call it these days, by the veil Circe designed. Soon after the creation of Nezarches, the Fates visited again. Even though we managed to save a big part of our old world, old evil managed to seep through the cracks of the spell and into Nezarches.” His teeth grinded as he spoke, pain filling his gaze. “In order to restore balance, a fated pair will be born, two powerful royal hybrids, guarded by the underworld triad, destined to rule over the new lands and defeat the old evil. These children’s fate cannot be controlled. They can either bring all of the races together or be the doom of Nezarches by awakening Ragnarök yet again.“ He sighed. “This is what the original prophecy is. Myself and Circe were entrusted to make sure that the children would survive until their awakening, when the King and the Queen would finally meet. To do so, we decided to hide the existence of the Queen, the King’s mate…” He looked up at me, silently begging me to understand. “The fates agreed and told us the prophecy everyone knows, as a ruse for maleficent forces. ‘The King of all beasts shall be born and he will be the one to begin the next Purge by slaying the underworld beasts’. Until Abbie came the night before your father was killed, we had no idea who the chosen ones were and when she told us another seer was trying to prevent you from being born, we knew we had to protect you… both of you… Luckily, Devora’s birth was safe and her parents made it really difficult for us to keep track, but also did a great job at keeping her safe.” he gave Devora a sad smile. She was just as shocked as everyone else in the room. “Shortly after your birth we found out Persephone was pregnant and when she gave birth to the triplets and none of them were deities, but hybrids, we understood that they were the underworld triad. The Lernaean hydra,” he pointed at Larna, “the chimaera,” he pointed at Kim, “and Cerberus.” He finally pointed at Kerbe.

“So you mean to say we are not their kids?” Kerbe asked. He jumped up from his seat, enraged by what had been revealed.

“You are. However, the souls of the ancient beasts reside in you, hence the old beasts in the so-called prophecy that everyone knows.” He rubbed his hands on his face, desperate to get to the end of this. “We couldn’t say anything to anyone until the two of you met, although Kora and Des, as well as Selene and Ambro got suspicious about the prophecy the night I killed Pandora… It got hard to keep things from the people that we were closest to… but we had no choice.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “The night your father died everything that could’ve gone wrong, it f*****g did… You and your mom lost your father, we lost Epimetheus and he lost Pandora… Like you know, Abbie told us another seer was trying to prevent your birth and we all came down to your mother’s place that afternoon. We were all together when the breach happened. It was all so fast we barely had time to react. Somehow, Pandora got compromised and while she distracted us, taking us away from your parents, the seer tried to stab your mother. We heard the commotion and ran back just as your father jumped in front of Ana, saving her and you. Des killed the seer and uhm… removed the stake from your dad’s body. We hoped Kora could save him, but as soon as the stake was removed, his body vanished. Once she had realised what happened, your mom nearly killed Pandora. She would have killed her, had it not been for you hurrying up to get here. She made me swear I would personally make sure Pandora didn’t see the light of another day. That night, before you came into this world, I made sure I kept my promise to Ana and killed Pandora, which of course cost me my brother… As to the origins of the knife… we never found out, there was no magical trace on it, as if it had no crafter and no welder. If you want to study it, we have it in the archive museum downstairs at the Council House. It's locked away in a preserved room but you can always access it." he let out a deep breath."There you have it. The truth.” He sighed and looked into our eyes, pleading us to believe him. I wasn’t sure if he could feel our emotions, but I definitely could and everyone was all over the place. Confusion, betrayal, sadness, anger, relief. It was a crazy mix of feelings and we needed time to process all of this.

“You said old evil has seeped through?” He nodded. “What is it?”

“At some point, about twelve years ago, there was a notable surge of ousia in the grid of Nezarches; some districts from a couple of Houses have experienced ousia drainage for several days. The way the power grid has been affected has been seen only once before. When the three of you were born.” he said, looking at the triplets. Circe and I are the only ones connected to the ousia grid of Nezarches, that’s also how we found you two.” Pointing at Devora and I. “Considering this, our suspicions are that Nemia is back, either her or her soul are in Nezarchez. Considering there hasn’t been another power surge since then, I can only assume it’s her soul and someone is looking for a strong enough host.” He said, defeated.

“Wait. Nemia, as in the Nemian lion?” Kim asked.

“Yes. She would technically be your sister. And Heph’s mate.” He said and rubbed his face roughly. He was tired of lying and this was a relief for him. I could sense his aura getting lighter and he was getting more relaxed the more the story was unfolding.

“Wait, what? Nemia is Heph’s fated?” I asked, slowly processing his words.

“Yes. They had only been together a brief period of time before Hera got in her head, turned her feral and Ace ended up killing her, or so we thought. Before imprisoning her in Tartarus, Hera had revealed that she had Nemia’s soul hidden away. By that time, it was too late to save her, the spell had started and their power was drained. The Purge started shortly after. It took over eight centuries to get Heph to get better and now that she’s back…”

“Why would she be the old evil?” Devora, who had been silent this whole time, asked.

“I don’t think she is. I think whoever has her soul is.” He said, more serious than I had ever seen him. “The fact that we don’t know who, what and where the threat is even more worrying.”

“Is that everything that there is? No more secrets? No more lies? No more hidden prophecies?” I was still angry with all of this and not really sure how to process it all.

“That’s all. Nothing else.” He made eye-contact with us and bowed his head.

“Very well. You will now join the others downstairs. You’ll know when we reach a decision.” I mindlinked Ajax, who was waiting outside my office to come and take him downstairs. When the door closed, I pulled Devora into my arms and nuzzled my face in her neck, inhaling her scent and softly kissing her marking spot. She moaned in my head, making me forget we weren’t alone.

“What now?” Larna asked, as pissed off as the rest of us.

“I need time to think. All of this is new information that only the two of them had known for millennia. It’s hard to overlook that, at the same time, it’s hard to argue his logic. If I’m being honest, I’m quite thankful now that they did this. They kept Dev safe and considering all the s**t we’ve faced over the years, can you say I’m wrong?”

“No. I agree. But it still doesn’t excuse what they did.” she crossed her arms over her chest.

“No, it doesn’t.” I sighed.