Olives, Oracles and Omens

"Congratulations." Simos said as we entered the compound. He had his hands on his hips and a cheerful expression on his face. "You two were great! The crowd loved you!"

Malreus and I glanced awkwardly at one another, but said nothing. He moved towards his bedroom door without a single word. He looked like a dog who'd been kicked.

Simos looked between the two of us and raised an eyebrow. "Okay...?"

"So um..." I rubbed my arm with unease and watched as Malreus' bedroom door closed. He clearly wasn't in the mood to listen to Simos. "What did you guys see?"

"I watched from here." Simos said with a smile. He probably didn't want to be near Manos and his groupies anyway. "We saw nearly everything, but we kind of lost you two in the middle somewhere. One moment you two were together, powering through, and the next moment, it was just you in the idol's cavern, with the weapon's globe."

"Weapon's globe? That's what he calls it?" I scoffed at Helius' ridiculous name for his death machine. "Cute."

Simos chuckled and walked up to me; "You were really impressive, Tea." His finger traced a path up to where a stray blonde hair had escaped from my tight bun. He pushed it behind my ear. "The crowd loves you."

I felt awkward- I didn't really want this. Or did I? I don't know... Things were weird between Simos and I, but now things were even weirder between Malreus and me. My stomach didn't flip like it had with Malreus when Simos leaned in and whispered; "I'm glad you're safe."

"Um..." I leaned back and looked over his shoulder, at my bedroom door. I needed some time to think. "I'm going to bed. I need some rest. And a shower." I muttered and moved away from the young man.

Simos nodded and smiled cheerfully- fully optimistic again. "Of course! Shaban will bring breakfast to your room. You should eat something."

"Thanks." I nodded and quickly stepped inside my room. We'd made it out of the cave at dawn, but my body and mind needed rest. I'd go out later tonight to look for more monoliths. Perhaps it was better to go alone- I needed some space.

I closed my bedroom door and locked it. I didn't want breakfast now- I just need to clean myself and jump into bed. That's all I really wanted.

That's the only thing I knew I really wanted.

I think...

Narray's POV

It was easy. These mortal men were susceptible.

Keya would book me for a man- sometimes young, but more often than not, an older gentleman. I would lead him inside my new bedroom and smile seductively. Then, with a basic spell, I'd knock him out and push him back onto the bed.

Easy-peasy.

When they wake up, they think we had the best sex he's ever had and I get paid for manicuring my nails for nearly an hour.

If only Triton wasn't such a brute.

It was supposed to be a normal afternoon. I monitored Keya as best I could- watched her like a hawk. By now I knew most of her favourite things. She loved roses, strawberries and strawberry flavoured cheesecake. She ate a small piece every afternoon around tea time- not too much; she had a figure to keep.

Her tea had to be black, but with sugar. She had a sweet tooth. After tea, Keya would read a bit of her book and then watch the birds chirp as she observed her girls chatting to potential customers. Business was booming.

After her afternoon tea, she would get ready, grab a shawl, and make her way to the market to do some shopping and meet with one of the inner circle for gossip- usually Waldonius.

I watched her leave the manor's courtyard and head south- towards her favourite market. It was a sunny day and there were no clouds in the sky. A knock sounded on my door and Sarina opened it and poked her head inside; "You have a client."

I cringed and nodded with a fake smile; "Send him in."

Sarina opened the door to let the young man inside.

Triton walked in with a wide grin.

I struggled to keep the fake smile attached to my lips. "Welcome, sir. My name is Ray."

Sarina smiled to herself and closed the door, leaving us to some privacy. "Ah, Ray! Such a pretty name!" Triton said dramatically.

The moment the door closed, my smile dropped and I slapped his arm with the silk scarf I held between my hands. "What the hell are you doing here? You idiot!"

"What? No one knows we know each other! And even if they did, it's not suspicious!" He barked back and then suddenly, his smile was back. "So this is where the magic happens, huh?"

"Oh, shut up." I growled and crossed my arms over my chest.

"I mean actual magic. Right?" Triton raised his brow and walked up to me; "You don't actually sleep with these men, do you?"

"Of course not." I wrapped my arms around his neck and sighed when his lips touched mine.

Yes, Triton and I were together. For a while now.

None of the others knew about it and we weren't planning on telling them anytime soon. Or at least, I wasn't. Triton had wanted to months ago, but I was hesitant.

Mainly because if our friends and cousins found out, then my parents would find out. They didn't mind Triton at all, but I just didn't know if I was ready to have everyone know about it just yet.

We started seeing each other about five months ago. It was very unexpected and I won't deny we were both very drunk the night it happened, but we'd always been close.

Now, it was a different sort of intimate. A fun sort of intimate.

We didn't really know if we were serious and we'd never even spoken about love, but who knew...? I certainly didn't. We weren't those sort of people. What I did know was that we both really enjoyed sex.

Triton grabbed my ass and smiled down at me with slanted eyes; "So I have an hour to do whatever I want with you?"

"Technically it's forty-five minutes, but you usually last fifteen so it's fine."

"Ouch." Triton chuckled and picked me up off the ground, moving us to the bed. "I'm deducting that from your payment."

"Just you try to..." I giggled as he pushed me down onto the soft mattress and hooked his fingers underneath the straps of my delicate dress. He removed them from my shoulders, exposing my breasts. Triton kissed my neck as I fiddled with his trousers' buttons.

"So I hear Theia and Mal are fine- they finished the second trial about an hour ago."

I nodded, but didn't reply. Triton had this bad habit of talking in nearly ever situation. He was just like his father- a complete chatterbox.

"Do you think Malreus is going to kill Simos soon?" Triton chuckled to himself as I parted my legs and he threw up my dress. "I think he will..."

"Could we not talk about them right now?" I grumbled while he removed my lace underwear and climbed on top of me with a sly grin.

"What? You and I both have bets on Malreus- don't you want to take Asclepius' money?"

"Of course I do, but do we have to discuss this now?" I gestured to his stiff member a few inches from my wet heat. Now really wasn't the time for this.

Triton shrugged and proceeded to thrust down, filling me with what I really wanted.

We moved like we always moved- fast, reckless and a little bit silly. He was a jokester and I wasn't one for sentimental crap. He pressed his mouth to my ear and nibbled on it, but I knew the silence was too good to be true.

He whispered; "I think eventually Mal's going to lose it."

"Triton, shut up!" I dragged my nails across his back, but he didn't care.

"No, wait; I'm right. Trust me!" He nodded as his hips sped up and I muttered a moan into the crook of his neck. Triton and Malreus were best friends- they shared almost everything. Almost. The one thing Malreus didn't discuss with Triton was Theia.

Malreus was obsessively secretive when it came to his devotion to his real best friend. Theia was like his idol; his little treasure to keep safe and cherish. It's just too bad Theia was so unaware of his love and passion because of this tight friendship they've created over the many years.

She thinks he'll never want her more than a friend and he thinks she's too important to him to be put into a difficult decision where their friendship might suffer. Too bad neither of them could see that they were hopelessly in love.

"Mal is not a patient man. Simos better watch his step." Triton grunted and pushed himself onto me with more force. I pulled his face down to my breasts- maybe that would stop him from talking...

It didn't. "I mean..."

"Ugh." I groaned up at the ceiling.

"The sexual tension between those two is just insufferable sometimes, you know what I mean?"

"You're insufferable!" I muttered with anger and all Triton did was chuckle; the sound muffled by my bosom.

"You're not too bad yourself..."

Now I miss those shifty mortal men. At least when they were unconscious it was quiet. It's a good thing Triton knew what he was doing in bed...

Morpheus' POV

"It seems they completed your challenge." I placed the strong brew of black coffee on Helius' desk. He was examining some papers- probably weekly reports.

I hadn't been here long- not even a week- but I knew how he worked. He was restless when it came to new business opportunities.

"Hmm." Helius muttered and picked up the mug with one hand, his eyes still fixed on the document in front of him.

"Will that be all?" I asked with a hint of sourness. Helius wasn't too bad of a boss, but I was still a prince. It irked me that a mortal could chase me around and make me serve him. How disgusting.

Luckily his secretary wasn't too bad looking. She made the hours here bearable, even if she wasn't the smartest rose in the garden.

"Hmp." Helius attempted a reply, but it was just like all his others. Curt and rude. To be honest though, out of all of the inner circle, Manos included, Helius was probably the least pretentious.

If only he'd had the ability to focus on more than one thing at a time.

I turned to leave, my patience low and my mind now firmly set on trying to find out if Theia was alright after their second trail, but Helius called me back. "Morph."

I stopped and turned around, half-hesitant to be ordered around again. "Yes, sir?"

He placed the reports down and tapped a few fingers on the big desk. "Do you think the challenge was too easy?"

I stilled a bit and thought of a good enough response. What I was really thinking was that the challenge had been ridiculously impractical and far too difficult for mortals, but that wasn't what I was going to tell him. I shrugged and tried to formulate a better answer; "It was complex, but done well."

"Don't kiss my ass, Morph." Helius slanted his eyes at me. "I know only ten percent of the contestants actually make it through my trail. It's meant to be difficult."

"Well, difficult isn't the word I would use..." I muttered under my breath, but he'd heard it.

"What do you think about those two contestants? The blonde woman and that man? She's good. Too good."

I nodded and shrugged again, but this time a bit more convincingly. "She seems capable and he's definitely a good warrior."

"Yes, but..." Helius thought for a moment and then he narrowed his eyes at the ground. "Simos hired them to do this with him; no doubt. Where on earth did he get such skilled fighters? And what is he paying them?"

Manos' nephew was seemingly a bit of a thorn in the entire inner circle's side; not just Estra's.

"I wouldn't know, sir." I turned to leave, but Helius called me back one last time.

"Find out where they're from. I want to know everything you can find on them both- their parent's names, their favourite colour, everything."

"Sir?" I frowned at him- this wasn't like him to get so involved with things. He looked like someone who kept his distance. In this case- I certainly hoped he did.

"I have high stakes going against these two. If they make it to the Labyrinth, we lose a lot of money. Is that understood, Morph?"

Ah. Money. The only language he truly understands.

I nodded with obedience. "Understood."

Helius dismissed me with a wave of his hand and soon enough, his eyes were back on his reports. I walked out of his office with a spark of anger- these mortals were playing with fire. But very well- I'd make up some false information on Theia and Malreus. It wasn't such a big issue, bit what bothered me was that the inner circle needed those two to be eliminated in the next round or Mania would get quite the bad whipping in the quanti field.

That didn't bother me, but their safety did.

Malreus and Simos were the next pair to head into Keya's trail- the third and last one before the labyrinth.

"Sir?" A young woman called for my attention. I stopped and turned to her slightly; "Yes?"

"You have a visitor." She pointed down to the lower level of the grand building and my eyes caught the familiar smirk of the young emperor to be. Ash waved up at me with a grin and twinkling eyes.

I sighed and thanked the young woman, making my way down to where my cousin was waiting for me to greet him. As I approached, Ash chuckled; "You look so happy here."

"Shut up. Do you have any news on Waldonius' Monolith? Theia needs to know where all of them are." I whispered the question and eyed our surroundings for any eavesdroppers.

Ash didn't care one bit. He loudly exclaimed; "No luck yet, but Waldonius is taking me to a secret cult meeting tonight."

I shushed him with a glare and a hiss; "What's wrong with you?"

"What?" He scoffed at me. I rolled my eyes and pulled him towards the corner; away from the traffic of people moving and running around us. The bank was especially busy today.

"Just try to be inconspicuous for once in your life.""

"Right." My cousin scoffed at the mere notion. "Me? Inconspicuous. You do know that the synonym for inconspicuous is unremarkable? That's not me, cousin."

I glared at him with silent annoyance; "Just get to the point. Why are you here?"

"I just told you- I'm going on secret cult business tomorrow. That's pretty big stuff."

I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest. "Yeah, alright. You better pay attention to what's happening around you. You cannot get distracted, okay? We need those poem fragments."

"Why are you so hell-bent on reading that poem?" Asclepius muttered with disinterest.

I slapped the back of his head; "Because it's important, okay. I just know it is. I keep having these... dreams."

"Oh," He rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall. "Dreams. You and your dreams..."

"Shut up. They mean something." I hissed at him.

"So what are these dreams about exactly?" Ash asked with some interest and looked around the bank for anything interesting to do while he was here. There wasn't. Unless you counted Margery- the secretary.

"Well, the main one is about Theia and that wolf. A big, black wolf. But lately I've been having this weird nightmare about uncle Thanatos and souls. It's... a little disturbing."

"Hmm. Disturbing..." He wasn't even paying attention to a word I was saying. Asclepius was staring at a woman a few feet away; her skirt was short and her hair was up, exposing her long neck. What a wolf- no pun intended.

"You're an awful cousin, you know that?"

Asclepius nodded with false interest. "Sure."

"Sir?" We both turned at the female voice. Margery held out a paper for me to take, her blush very evident on her cheeks. "A paper on the new project director Helius wants. It's for a statue."

A sharp pain shot through my head.

Asclepius didn't notice anything as he smiled at her and winked. Margery smiled back, blushing furiously and left quickly. But I didn't notice a thing- my vision had gone blurry and my head felt like it was about to crack open in two.

My back hit the wall behind me and Ash quickly threw an arm around my waist to keep me from falling to the ground. "What the hell, Mo?" He hissed at me and tried to make everything look normal for the thirty people walking past us. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

Some giggled; thinking that he was straddling me in public.

The vision hit me like a ton of bricks.

All I saw was an orangey-red shade- the entire picture was playing out in that coral tint. I'd experienced this only a few times before, but I knew it well. This was a vision- a prophecy.

A statue come into view- I couldn't see which one it was, but it was familiar. The statue had arms; they moved slowly and then pointed up. The next thing I saw, was a bright yellow necklace. It was such a sickly yellow that it even managed to change the tint of the vision to a canary orange. It shone like a bright light, but then shattered as the statue crushed it in its hand. A soul flew out from inside and the statue opened its mouth to consume it.

My legs buckled.

Asclepius cussed; "Zeus' sake..." He muttered and tried to help me up, but I was too weak. "Are you being extra dramatic to prove a point?"

Margery had called for some medical attention and soon enough Asclepius was being pulled off of me and four paramedics were examining my blood pressure and my dilated pupils.

I didn't know the statue in my vision and yet it was familiar. One thing was certain- there was so much more here than we knew.

Gods, Theia had no idea what she was in for...

Naton? Trirray? Do you ship them?

Also, what's up with Morpheus' dream? So many hidden clues, so little time...

Orpheus, Apollo and Hemera's second son = 

Three words to sum up the next chapter- 

Theia
Malreus
Hallelujah!