The Mythos Trials

Chapter Three, Part One

There was a moment when Lucas feared the firebird might have seen him, his tawny-eyed gaze flicking toward the small grouping of pines in which Lucas was hidden. But when nothing happened, the firebird, guardian, and the girl disappearing through the portal without so much as a backward glance, he allowed himself to relax.

Once certain that the coast was clear, he emerged through the trees, the low branches of flowering bushes snagging the threads of his long coat in passing. Lucas scarcely noticed, so focused was he on the portal before him.

Where it went, he didn't know—but he intended to find out. As he drew closer, he could feel the thrum of power radiating from the portal, gooseflesh breaking out beneath the collar of his shirt. Though it didn't take an upper-class demon to realize the ether powering it was considerably weaker than it ought to be, Lucas knew it would serve. Geminus was his home, and there were several portals scattered throughout the realm just like this one, two of which he himself had opened long ago.

Not that the fool of an ibis-headed god or the old earthen goddess had known. Not even the Inari had managed to sniff them out, and they had been in Geminus the longest.

Their ignorance is my advantage, Lucas reminded himself, the thought bringing with it a fresh surge of relief. Not a lot had gone right in the past two hundred years, but providing himself with the means to flee Geminus when he had at last freed himself of his master, earning the ire of his most loyal attendants, had been one of them.

Lucas slowed when he was barely an inch from the column of blue light, a gust of icy wind touching his cheeks as he leaned closer. Steeling himself, he stuck his head all the way in, determined to see where—if anywhere—the portal opened onto.

Assuming it's been properly activated, it should open somewhere within the Underworld, perhaps in—ah, so they did it right, after all. Lucas found himself staring down a stone corridor with vaulted ceilings, the floor made of a slightly different composition than the dark grey cinderblocks curving first left, then right. Sconces lined both sides at staggered intervals, casting blue light with their flames.

Hades' domain.

Pulling his head out so that he was fully back within Geminus, he nodded his satisfaction. Now that he knew where the portal led, he could make his report to Reeves and Lady Iris—and what better way than to do it from the comfort of his own cottage, hidden so far from prying eyes?

He loped off down the hill, striking up a cheerful whistle as he did. For the first time in a long while, he was beginning to feel the stirrings of something familiar, something long absent from his life.

Hope.

The grassy knoll gave way to trees easily twice as thick around as a full grown Minotaur, the lavender pines casting fractals of purple light across the forest floor where the sun penetrated their needles. Moon-birch and sycamore towered above all the rest, their thin trunks and limbs swaying in the steady gusts rolling across the land.

Lucas caught the scent of rain on the air, spying a few errant storm clouds in the distance. He lengthened his stride, continuing deeper into the forest past oaks, maples, and elms bearing leaves of gold, russet, and silver, determined to make it to his cottage before a fresh downpour began. Storms were plentiful on this side of the continent, and almost always severe in nature.

It was a mystery that Cybele and the others had bothered making the realm their home, given how little sway they had over the natural phenomena, never mind the pious, superstitious peoples of his world.

You were like them once, he reminded himself. Long ago...but no longer. Still, if he hadn't held such scorn for the gods, he might have puzzled over this fact. What good did it do them, to take up in a world where their very nature and existence must be hidden at all times?