The Gates of Tartarus | I ✓

28. Alexander The Great Really Just Fought Everything Big He Saw, Didn't He?

Okay guys. So... I didn't have ANY time to write. And I'm so sorry about that. I'm gonna try and spit out as many half-decent chapters next week since it's Thanksgiving break. At least I got this chapter out though!

I have learned that I completely SUCK at crisis. High five to any Model UN people reading this and know what I'm talking about.

Let's just get on with the chapter.

Edit: So as it turns out, I still suck at crisis, but I won best del at my crisis committee a couple months back so maybe I suck less now. ALSO, I'm sure I only won because the topic was the Trojan War and I mean. I MEAN. Anyway yeah let's just get to the chapter.

​​I had been staring into the darkness for so long with unfocused eyes that Apollo had to snap his fingers twice in my face to get my attention.

I blinked thrice, and then glanced over to where he was sitting, now awake, looking back at me with a raised eyebrow. "I said your name three times," he said. "What if a monster had attacked? We would be dead, that's what."

Yet, for some reason, I knew he wasn't actually angry. "I was just blocking out all the annoying sounds."

"Right." He sounded entirely unconvinced. "Anyway, I went through my memories. If I had known that we would be forced to leave the mortal realm then, I wouldn't have spent most of it blacked out, but point is, I was trying to look for the name Galeria. Any chance a cognomen was mentioned?" I had no idea what a cognomen was, but I shook my head. He sighed. "Anyway, I couldn't recall anyone named Galeria that was present at Caesar's assassination—that memory took a while to get to because I couldn't remember when it happened.

"And so I just thought your dreams were just that—dreams. I mean, sure, they're... strangely accurate, but maybe it was just coincidence. And then I... Remember what the arae and the gegenes said? What Nyx and the Sphinx said? They said we gods forgot something, one of the worst mistakes in our lives." He hesitated. "So I was thinking... maybe we forgot Galeria. But that doesn't make any sense either.

"We don't forget things like our worst mistake, and how could a single person be our worst mistake? Even if that were true, how is it that none of us ever remembered? The only plausible theory is that we voluntarily took our own memories, but why? And in that one dream, the one with Hannibal... you had dreamed you were Scipio, a real person. So Galeria must've been a real person. But who?"

I could do little more than shrug helplessly. I didn't know any Galerias. Besides, I doubted he was actually asking me—it seemed more a rhetorical question than anything.

"Let's not focus on that," I suggested. "Doesn't matter anyway. Whoever they are, they're not going to help us get out of here."

"No," he agreed. "That would be the glowing raven."

We both glanced up at the same time to see the raven glaring down at us, as if asking, You done resting, punks? You're gonna love the next part of this trip!

"Would you be offended if I murdered the raven?" I murmured. "Just a little?"

"As long as you let me punch it first," he muttered back.

"Deal."

Perhaps the raven had understood our conversation, because this time, it was flying faster than before—I had a terrible stitch in half an hour, but I knew that stopping was worse. Annoyingly, though, Apollo looked fine—he probably did this much running as a warm-up or something.

"Why is it flying so fast?" I huffed.

"I don't know." Apollo frowned. "It's not doing this for no reason, and I doubt it's because it actually understood us or even cares... it's not a real animal, after all. It's made from my magic—if anything, it'd actually help us..."