a/n. triggering content (violence) ahead. please read at your discretion. 

V || apple of discord

Prometheus' prophecy. Aeschylus' play. Zeus' trepidation.

It all led to the tumultuous matrimony between the sea nymph and a mortal king. Beauty and chaos intertwined, the knot tied was both a blessing and a curse. Graced with the birth of a quintessential war hero venerated to be greatest, the nuptial later became an unfortunate hex to their blood that hurled him into oblivion.

And the one variable to inculpate: the golden apple of discord.

◩

LOCATION UNKNOWN
Day 7

━━━━━━━━━━

"What nonsense is that?" I drew in a shallow inhale, wanting to calm my already pounding heart but nothing seemed to be working in my favour. 

There was no way I would be some random divine being as what they had claimed, and the most obvious sign was the absence of immortality — I bled red like every other mortal, for heaven's sake. At least, I wasn't delusional enough to also forget that my birth parents were mortal. 

Goddess? These Titans must be senile. 

"She does have some semblance to that old bloke," Titan with pale gold eyes spoke, studying me with his piercing gaze. "How old are you? Why haven't you ascended?" 

"Brother, don't you think you should introduce yourself to her first before interrogating her?" Pelleas smirked. 

"I have no time to spare for this kind of crap, Oceanus," Titan with pale gold eyes snarled. He turned and grabbed the collar of the thin medical garb that I wore, easily pulling my body up at his will. I struggled uselessly against his hold as he forced, "How old are you?"

"Alright, Hyperion. That's enough." 

The other Titan who followed them into my ward spoke while gripping on his brother's arm with one hand and freeing me with the other. I caught that aggressive Titan's name and there was no doubt that he would be the Titan of Light, Hyperion.

"Stop meddling with everything I do, Coeus!" Hyperion exploded.

I turned my head around to look at the Titan with irises that were faint to almost nothing. He had ivory white eyes that almost blended with the white of his eyes. The Titan stared at me, not bothering to give me a single expression as he swung me back on the bed coldly. My body impacted back on the neither soft nor hard sheets, but my gaze refused to leave the Titan of Intelligence, Coeus. 

At this point, I had never expected that all the boring mythology classes could at least be of some applicability to life. Pelleas, or should we just call him Oceanus from now on, interrupted the tensed air with his ear-piercing cackles, "Interesting, remarkably interesting. I haven't seen my brothers this worked up for centuries and you're the first to induce such an overwhelming reaction on them. Diavgís, my darling, tell us why haven't you ascend?"

"What in the world is ascend?" I spat, slapping his hand away when Oceanus attempted to hold onto me. I pushed myself up and spoke through gritted teeth, "I have no idea what the hell all of you are talking about."

"Still trying to deny?" 

Oceanus gripped onto my arm and tore through the fabric my top by the sleeves. He bit onto his thumb and smeared liquid gold against my inner bicep. A line of silver shone through, and it formed: Θανατος. He pulled it close to my line of sight and said, "Look, you're bonded to another god and only a divine can survive having this carve — this promise mark. Do you still believe that you're a mere human now?"

"P-Promise to?" I asked in a shaky voice, surprised to see a mark that resembled something that I saw on Jax's arm. The letters looked different, but we had it in the exact same place. Now that I recalled, Jax once explained to me that his tattoo was inked above the vein that linked closest to the heart. Why did I have it too?

"You really have no idea, don't you?" Oceanus laughed, perfectly amused.

Beside him, Coeus added, "That's a promise to an eternal bond."

"When you killed my wife—" Oceanus spoke as he removed his suit jacket and unbuttoned his dress shirt. 

Stripping the thin white top off him, he showed me a mark that was blood red on his arm. The veins surrounding the mark became an ominous black that branched out from the letters. On his arm, the mark looked like an ugly brand rather than a romantic bond. 

Oceanus pointed towards it and raised his brows towards me, hostility dulled the blue in his eyes when he continued, "When you killed my wife, this happened to me. But I severed the bond before this curse could hex me to death and I can do that because primordial beings like us don't need a heart to live, we're not fragile like you gods and goddesses." 

I wasn't in the mood to struggle any longer. My shoulders dropped and I felt weak all over that even when Oceanus held me by my jaw with crushing force, I allowed him to. My mind blurred with all the deafening thoughts that meddled with my rationality. Somewhere, I heard Coeus explaining, "The letters carved on your arm is your partner's name and this is your marriage mark. With that mark, the other half promised to protect you with his life and should he fail, he would be obliterated and never allowed to exist ever again." 

Darned it, Titan of Intelligence. I didn't want to know this much. 

But since he already went this far to explain, I asked, "What's the name carved on my arm?" 

Coeus replied curtly, "Thanatos." 

"Do you have a pen?" 

"What are you playing at?" Hyperion growled. 

"Shut up, Hyperion," Coeus snapped at him and handed me a pen.

I took it and scribbled something on my arm, showing it to Coeus. Those were the letters that I remembered so clearly on Jax's arm, which he refused to tell me about the meaning behind that tattoo no matter how hard I tried. I guess I had no choice but to ask this smarty pants Titan to tell me about it. I requested, "Read." 

"What goddess are you that you can't even read Hellenic? Are you illiterate?" Coeus frowned, obviously offended by my stupidity. He ridiculed, "Diavgís."

"And you said that I am?" I turned and asked Oceanus.

"The Goddess of Dreams, Diavgís," Oceanus smirked.

Fucking great. All these divine craps.

I laughed, even when I knew that nothing about this whole thing was funny. It was being hidden within this web of lies that made me realised how foolish I was, how naive I had been to believe that everything good happened to me was all a silver lining within the dark depths of my life.

Thinking about Jax, I felt a burn at the back of my eyes, but I squeezed them shut to refrain the tears from falling. Finally, I knew the reason for him to be so definite in keeping me under his protection and forcing me to know every possible way to survive. It must be the fear of the gods when they realised that their immortality was just as fragile — if I were to shatter, so would he.

A hand gripped on my arm, and I jumped in surprise while trying my hardest to withdraw myself. Yet, my strength wasn't enough to overpower the three Titans that surrounded me. Feeling a painful hold against the nape of my neck, I was positioned face to face with Oceanus as he stared piercingly into my eyes and commanded, "Follow us."

Lightheaded, my body moved on its own and followed right behind the three Titans. I tried to fight against the power compelling over my consciousness, but it was to no avail. Forcing the words through gritted teeth, I scowled, "R-Release m-me."

"No point struggling against it, darling," Oceanus smirked. "You have nothing warding you against us."

When Hyperion reached for my jaw, I struggled through the force commanding my body and turned my head to bite hard on his hand. The blood of immortals didn't have the same metallic stench. Rather, it was disgustingly sweet. Swinging me aside, the Titan glared at me with his pale gold eyes and spat, "Feisty little fucker."

When my shoulder impacted against the wall, a sharp pain jolted through my body, and I felt my bones jangling from the hit. I hated how helpless I felt right now, and I despised the weakness that pumped through my veins. Nothing was heeding to my plea, even the Gods up above were mocking me while slouching in their ivory thrones.

I was eventually pulled into an empty room that was as claustrophobic as the ward that they trapped me in, except that nothing was within this space. It was empty with only me and three other Titan. No one moved an inch until Coeus decided to break the tension and left the room. But when he returned, I began panicking. 

In his hand was an odd-looking youngling of a beast that was blindfolded and gagged. It was struggling so much and at my distance, I could already the fear overwhelming it. Hyperion started laughing even when nothing about this whole scene was humorous. I asked fearfully, "W-What's the meaning of t-this?" 

"Oh, don't worry, darling," Oceanus exhaled a laugh, joining Hyperion. He explained, "This youngling is neither a human nor mortal."

"It's—"

"Divine," Coeus interjected. "One of the dirty followers of those Gods and Goddesses." 

Coeus threw the youngling to me, as though it was nothing but a piece of worthless trash. The poor youngling struggled against my feet, but I couldn't move an inch to help it towards me. 

Then, Oceanus unsheathed a knife out of nowhere and sliced it against my arm. I winced, watching as crimson flowed from the wound and coated the cold blade in an odious shade. Placing the hilt in my arm, the Titan said simply, "Kill it."

Before I could process the words fully, my body already bent forward, and my arm was cocked to the back with a knife in my hand. I grew frantic internally, using all the mental strength I had to fight against the control over me. Although I managed to stop myself before my arm could swing down and stab the youngling to death, the Titan's control over me wasn't easing at all. 

I was trying my hardest, but I was on the losing end. The knife in my hand drew closer to the youngling and tears of desperation spilt from the corner of my eyes. I screamed, "S-Stop it!" 

Yet, it was all too late. The knife pierced right through the small body beneath me, and gold spilt from the wound — the youngling no longer moved. Overwhelmed by my own fear, my voice was quivering when I cried, "N-No—"

Hyperion snatched the younglings away from me and inspected the lifeless body in his hands. Beside him, Coeus frowned, "Interesting, she could even take away the Aether of divine beings."

It was instincts that pumped energy into limbs as I held onto the knife in my hand and leapt towards Hyperion ahead of me with pure force. I could almost reach him before he swung his arm and threw me to the side forcefully. My entire body crashed against the cold wall and the last thing I remembered was how the youngling lay lifeless on the ground and its murderer — was me.

◩

a/n.

a few references in this chapter: 
'apple of discord' explains the birth of achilles and the precipitation of trojan war.
'ichor' is the gold fluid that is the blood of the immortals. therefore, immortals bleed in gold.
'Diavgís' is not an actual goddess in greek mythology. it was created by me for this story.