The Captive Titan [ManxMan]

Chapter Sixteen: Hope With Wings

 ~Chapter Sixteen: Hope With Wings~

The Dagda is not smiling. In fact, he looks like he is bordering on unhappy, if not outright angry, and the reactions from the rest of the room do not differ that greatly; most of them are just a bit harder to read since they are usually fairly neutral-faced. The Dagda, though, is usually a fairly cheerful god, so the slight narrowing of his eyes and the tension in his jaw is a stark contrast to his normal brightness. Considering the fact that this is normal for him when dealing with certain pantheons, however, I doubt the newest arrival has noticed.

If I was an idiot, I would even say that Hermes looks oblivious to the tension in the room.

Looks can be deceiving, though, and I doubt he is actually as unaware as his guileless smile suggests. I am fairly certain that Cronus, who is still sitting a few seats away from me, has also picked up on the tension, but since I cannot see him very well around my parents, that is only a guess. Cronus and Hermes might not be from my pantheon, but it is not always hard to read a room, even if my pantheon probably usually seems cold and distant from their point of view.

"Your windows really hurt, you know," Hermes comments, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room the moment he hit the window. Of course, it is not entirely his fault that he flew directly into one, as the glass is glamored to seem like it is not there at first glance for the sake of my pantheon's attachment to nature, and I doubt Hermes has visited this realm enough to know that.

"I would suggest not flying into them," the Dagda replies, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Why are you here, Hermes?"

Hermes immediately reaches for his bag, and I get the feeling that it is only because he, as a messenger god, is technically supposed to be a neutral party that keeps the rest of my pantheon from just killing him on the spot. After all, if he were anyone else, who knows what he could be hiding in that bag of his.

Actually, why is he carrying a bag?

From what I have seen, he usually just summons his letters and packages from some pocket dimension. I refrain from pointing this out, though, as some members of my pantheon would be all too happy to kill him on the spot for being suspicious, even if he has been my ally.

The ally which I have kind of left out of my discussions. The ally that very few people actually know is my ally, which is something I am going to have to correct.

Cronus might have told the Dagda of Hermes' involvement in one of their own talks, but I have yet to even properly broach the topic of working with Hades to the Dagda, let alone Hermes. And considering the potential problems Hermes' unexpected arrival might cause, I am starting to see that that may have been a mistake. I doubt it would have done much to sway my pantheon in their favor, but my pantheon at least might not be staring at Hermes' with guarded hostility.

Unless they already know and just don't care.

"I come bearing a gift," Hermes says, and he promptly tosses something at me to catch. For a brief second, it looks like either the Dagda or my mother is going to snatch it before I can, but I act quicker and grab it first. "And also a-"

Whatever Hermes has to say after that, I do not get a chance to hear it, as the moment I lock eyes with the small figurine - a carved, wooden person with two sets of wings attached to its back and a snake coiled at their feet - it is suddenly too loud in my head to hear anything going on around me, even though something tells me there is suddenly a lot of noise, and the last thing I see if my unfinished stew.

- - - - - - -

For what feels like a very long time, there is nothing. Just blank darkness - the nothingness of unconsciousness or the stillness of space. Only, in the void of unconsciousness, one tends to be, well, unconscious, yet I am as aware of it as I was my stew. And that is concerning because it is different.