The Gates of Tartarus | I ✓

27. Senators' Strife And Their Stabby Knife

My guys I LOVE this title. I don't know why, but it's my favorite. It even rhymes! I won a winning record at GGSA, so it wasn't too bad, but CHEDDAR AND MUNCHMORE COST ME MY UNDEFEATED.

if you don't recall, Cheddar and Munchmore convinced the judge last time that plans weren't important for a plans case. This time, they managed to do facts for a facts case. I swear to god, when I get my hands on them....

I'm rambling too much. Let's just get started on the chapter.

Edit: I never encountered Cheddar and Munchmore again, though sometimes I wonder how their debate journey went. Probably better than mine, given that I ended up quitting debate like three times lmao.

Still love the chapter title though.

Also I was supposed to get this out like five hours ago. Oops.

The raven couldn't feel fatigue, but we could. Even Apollo, with his endless stamina, actually had to walk instead of gracefully half-gliding like he usually did. As for me, I was doing my best not to drop on the spot.

"How long have we been in Tartarus?" I asked Apollo, if only in an effort to keep myself awake. "If you were to guess?"

"Depends on which realm you're talking about."

"Huh?"

"Oh, right," he said. "Remember how every realm is different? Trying to figure out the exact equation for each is near impossible. Too many variables needed. Trust me. I wrote a paper on uni for this a few millennia back and even years of research wasn't enough to figure it out. Approximation is best, if you have a general equation, but magic... it's unreliable at best."

Wasn't that similar to Einstein's theory of relativity? And Apollo had discovered it millennia ago? It was times like these when I wondered why Athena had even bothered going down to the mortal realm for school. Sure, Apollo hadn't exactly known what cells were, but did Athena really need to know things like that? If I could've, I would've traded my own education system for Olympus' in a heartbeat.

Then again, I could hardly figure out calculus, so I probably would've failed every class. If even Apollo, the actual god of knowledge, hated tests, then I would've died.

"Eden?"

"Yeah?"

"You wanna take a break?"

I blinked. "Why?"

"You look ready to drop."

Was it that obvious? "I'm fine."

As soon as I said that, I tripped and went sprawling rather ungracefully. But instead of getting up like a normal person, I found that the momentum had left me. Standing up seemed half-impossible. The exhaustion settled in.

"Eden," Apollo said, his voice tinged with worry.

"I'm fine," I mumbled, my face still planted on the ground, which was a bad idea, because I ended up tasting Tartarus' ground. "Think I might need a break, though."

"Okay, but not here. We're too exposed."

I wiggled like a happy, confused slug, but I didn't get up.

"Eden, come on."

"A person at rest will stay at rest."

A roar echoed in the distance, and I immediately shot to my feet, knives flashing in my hands as I scanned the darkness for whatever monster was coming, but instead I came face-to-face with Apollo's smug expression.