THEOS

Nel opened and closed her mouth, her eyes darting between the three of them on the carriage. Her expression rapidly shifted from contemplative to uncertain.

“If we want to do this, we’ll have to decide soon.” Luke added. His eyes lingering on the orb in Eva’s hands. A part of him really wanted to know what she was doing with them, but another much bigger part of him was too concerned about making sure the quest continued.

“Do you really think we can kill her?”

“She’s running from us.” Luke crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s also down to one arm and a single eye. I like our odds.”

“What he said.” Heracles chipped in. “If that thing can truly lead us to her, then I say we end this. The alternative is that she flees, recovers, and comes back here.”

“We can wait for Grandfather to recover.”

“Or we can put her head on his nightstand, and he can admire it when he wakes up.” Luke insisted. “I mean, we don’t have to do exactly that but…” he made a weird spasming motion with his hands, “you know what I mean.”

Nel sighed deeply. “Why is it that you want to kill her?”

Well I have to kill her.

“Why don’t you?” Luke asked in turn. She lifted an eyebrow and frowned at him.

Yeah, I didn’t think it would be that easy.

“I like Cyzicus.” Luke replied truthfully. “He’s been good to me, and I want to be good to him. More than that, the Rebel’s very existence makes me uncomfortable. It has since the day Jax told me about her. The fact that she’s willing to sink so low, scares the shit out of me, and if I’m being honest, so does this war lasting a second longer than it needs to. Sure, I guess we can retreat now, and Cyzicus can kill her later, but how many people will die from now till then. We have a real shot at ending this, right now, without anyone else losing their lives, and I say we do.”

“What he said.” Lukeus chimed in.

Nel bit her lip. “Let’s see where she is first.”

The creeping ball of anxiety that had been gestating in his stomach eased slightly.

The ring on Nel’s finger flashed, and a giant map of Sylcra appeared in the air in front of her. They watched curiously, as she lined the map up with the orientation of the island. Her gaze shifted between the compass still in Eva’s hands and the map, almost immediately a worried frown settled over her face.

“It’s pointing straight towards the swamp.” She said worriedly.

Luke scratched his chin as both Eva and Lukeus grew pale. Rex said that place was scary, but honestly, we’re all warriors. Unless there are Hero-tier monsters hiding in there, we should be fine, right?

“That doesn’t mean much, it could just be pointing to Skyscar territory. Does that thing tell us how deep we'll need to go?” Lukeus asked.

“The compass only points in the direction, it doesn’t tell me how far.” Nel shook her head.

“What manner of creatures lurk in the swamps, that have you so frightened.” Heracles grumbled after seeing their reactions.

“It’s not one thing in there, it’s the whole… You’ll see.” Lukeus said.

Hmmm. If we draw a line on the map here, and then another one from a different position then we should–

“There’s a way to find out exactly where a person is.” Eva said, pulling Luke out of his thoughts.

He listened with half an ear as the twelve year old girl explained how to triangulate a target's exact position with the blood compass, much to Luke’s own amusement.

I wonder what the story there is. I do remember Cyzicus saying something about going and getting Jax’s remaining family, but then that still doesn’t explain why she’s flying around with Nel. And how would Nel have even gotten the compass. Is that what she was doing while we were freeing Heracles? Sneaking into enemy territory, and stealing important artifacts.

Even so… Eva seems a bit too comfortable with her. I don’t care how good of a reason Nel had to kill Jax, but if he was my brother I wouldn’t be able to forgive his killer. Probably not ever, and definitely not so easily. Nel doesn’t seem the type to obscure the truth either. If there’s one thing I know about her, it’s that she’s straightforward.

Nel nodded to Eva, and drawing a line on the map, they vanished with a single beat of the griffins wings, and appeared in the air miles away a few minutes later.

“So fast.” Luke whispered to himself.

“It truly is. Griffins are powerful creatures, and that one seems to be a descendant from a particularly powerful line.” Heracles said. “Your pegasus is also good.” He added hastily, after remembering Lukeus was still there. “Pegasi make for the finest steeds. Father has a–”

“Heracles, you don’t have to explain why pegasi are good. I have one.” Lukeus cut him off.

“It was just that you–”

Nel chose that moment to return. Not wasting a second, she floated the map in front of them. Her face set into a nervous frown. “Do you still want to go?”

Luke glanced at the narrow X she had drawn on the map. It converged right in the middle of the swampy region. Maybe a day’s worth of travel on the Pegasus– less if they could all fit on to her griffin.

If Cyzicus is going to be out for days, then I don’t imagine her being up and running anytime soon. And, if there’s nothing of any real importance down there, Herecles probably has something that can level the whole area if it comes down to it. Although… avoiding widespread destruction is probably for the best if we can avoid it.

I have to kill her with my sword, anyway.

“I don’t see a problem with it. Unless they're some Hero-tier monsters we need to be concerned about, I think we should be fine, but I also don’t really know what you guys are scared of.” Luke confessed.

Nel hesitated, before answering. “There’s not one thing in there that I can point to and say, that’s what makes it dangerous. It’s just that we don’t know what could be in there. It’s the only part of the island that Grandfather couldn’t tame when he first settled here, and every expedition that goes into it and tries, inevitably fails. It’s also home to most of the island's monsters. Every strange, creepy, or disgusting creature that you’ll find on Sylcra, crawled its way out of there.”

“Lukeus, what do you say?” Heracles turned to the emperor’s grandson.

Luke held his breath, and waited for him to respond.

I guess my quest, once again, rides on his shoulders. It should be fine.

In spite of his actions, Lukeus wasn’t the lustful coward he portrayed himself as, but at the same time, Luke had seen him unabashedly run from prospective danger twice. Seeing it a third time wouldn’t suprise him.

“We end this now.” He said resolutely. “Someone needs to take the little girl back though, we’re not taking her with us. It’s too dangerous.”

“I’ll be fine.” Eva protested, punching Nel on the back. “And me and her have a dea–”

Nel turned around, and put a hand over her mouth, and frowned. “I suppose I can fly back, and–”

“No. Aura is faster than Nutbutter.” He said reluctantly. “I’ll take her back to the Capital, and you take Heracles and Luke north. Was the Argo able to power the teleportation altars?”

“It was.”

He nodded. “Okay. I’ll–” He glanced at the map. “I’ll see what I can do from the Capital. Send me a talisman if you need anything.”

“It’s decided then.” Heracles clapped his hands together, a wide grin stretched across his face.

Luke scratched his chin. I suppose that works. Killing the Hero and risking our own lives is well and good, but bringing a kid with us is pretty stupid. She would probably be fine if we won, but if we lost... No, this is definitely for the best. Especially if there's more than one Compass, which hopefully there isn’t.

“Be careful on your way back, and don’t stop for anything.” Luke warned him. “Not until you're back in the Capital. I don’t know how this blood compass stuff works, but if they have more than one, they’ll be able to find you.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Nel shook her head. “Eva has the only one.”

“Oh. Never mind then. Let’s take that incase the Rebel starts to move, and we–”

“Mmmahifuodosonf.” Eva mumbled.

“Biting my hand isn’t going to work.” Nel sighed. “And there’s no point in taking it with us. Only descendants of the Clan can use it.”

“MMMMHHDOHIDF.”

“Excuse me.” Her ring flashed, and a small translucent bubble appeared around the griffin. Confident that she wouldn’t be heard, Nel lifted her hand off the girl's face.

Luke couldn’t hear what they were arguing about, but if one thing was clear, it was that Eva was mad, and Nel undeterred. After what felt like hours of watching their lips move, the bubble around them faded.

Nel nodded at Lukeus, and with the plan decided, Luke and Heracles both left the chariot, while Nel transferred the upset but reluctantly willing Eva to it.

Not wasting any time, Lukeus tugged the reins, and in seconds he was no more than a small speck in the sky.

“What’s the deal with you two?” Luke asked her,

“It’s none of your concern.” Nel replied curtly. Her tone making it clear that she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Fair enough.” Luke shrugged.

The next moment, she patted her griffin's neck, and they were comfortably shooting through the air. The forested ground rapidly contracted underneath them, as they flew into danger.

“What have you been up to all this time?” Heracles asked, suddenly.

“Um… Just hanging around. Training.”

“Training is good. I do quite a lot of it myself.”

Luke stared impassively at his back. This is going to be a long trip. Clearly being rich doesn’t make you good at talking to girls. Not that I have any reason to judge, I’ve barely even looked at a girl since I came to Theos.

Closing his eyes, he tuned out the Son of Zeus’s awkward attempts at flirting, and meditated on his mana.

Taking one deep breath after another, he tried to be as aware of it as possible as it flowed within his body. Paying particularly close attention to the area around his heart and the way it pulsed in tune with his body's natural rhythm. It was gentle, but at the same time, chaotic.

Tracing the resulting currents through his body, down his extremities, and just watched as it flowed back inwards after hitting the barrier that was his skin. The waves crashed with each other, and folded back into themselves, before another pulse from his heart temporarily washed away the chaos.

On a whim, he flexed his will, and seized control of every drop of the energy within him. Letting it become completely still within him, he released his hold, enough to let a single pulse through, before he stilled the mana around his heart alone. Preventing another pulse from escaping, he watched.

It wasn’t long after he noticed a subtle difference in the way it moved in his eyes, compared to the rest of him, and immediately his heart sped up in excitement, before he forcefully calmed himself down.

There’s only one thing that would make a difference in the way my mana moves, and around my eyes in particular. My bloodline. Taking a deep breath, he quickly opened his eyes, and made sure everything was fine, before returning to his meditation.

It was such a minor difference that it would have been impossible to notice in his body's natural state, and even with him carefully calming his mana, it surprised even him that he noticed it. Once he did though, it was impossible to unsee it.

If his mana was like water, then in the back of each of his eyes was a tiny pebble, minutely disturbing the way it flowed. Pebbles that would be undetectable, if not for the minor way his mana formed a whirlpool around them. Taking a hold of his mana, he prepared to investigate, before stopping himself.

I should probably wait. He thought reluctantly. If this is anything like unlocking my mana was, then I should hold off.

On the other hand, do I really want to leave anything on the table when I’m about to potentially fight a foe in the Hero-tier, and I will be fighting her. There’s no other way I’ll be able to stick my sword in her.

Before he could make a decision though, a loud shrieking noise pulled him out of his thoughts. Opening his eyes, he gulped as a cloud of giant winged serpents barreled through the sky and collided head first into their griffin.

Shit. Guess we’re at the swamp.