Chapter 11 - Declan
I’m having the strangest experience. Painful, but overall, not entirely bad. I’m standing up, but looking down at my own body at the same time. Like I’m having one of those out-of-body experiences.
Near death. That’s the state I’m in. I’ve been here before, so it’s kinda familiar. And it makes sense because I was attacked by a monster. But it also doesn’t make sense because… I was attacked by a monster.
Where the fuck am I?
I turn in place, looking around, but it’s actually not that easy to describe this room.
It’s… a bar? No. A bedroom? Not quite. A strip club? Getting closer.
It’s a weird mash-up of all three of those things.
Of course, the three strippers are holograms. They’re dancing inside cages that flicker and glitch, like the program running them is old and out of date.
They’re all naked so I watch them slowly gyrate against the bars of their cages to a bluesy song for a moment, as Aric, Quaid, and Star look down at my seemingly lifeless body on the ground with worried eyes.
What a strange room. I’m still trying to make sense of it when this statement comes right out of Quaid’s mouth. “What a weird room. I can’t tell if this is a brothel or a night club. What the hell is this place?”
Star snickers. “Yeah, it’s like we were dropped into the fantasy of a fourteen-year-old boy.”
Aric stiffens, straightening up. “I was sixteen, OK. This was my only safe place in the entire maze so I made my own. Excuse me if my décor is not up to your standards.”
Quaid laughs. “What?” He looks at Star. “What did he just say?”
Star just glares at Quaid, not answering.
So Aric continues. “This.” He points to the ground. “Is my home base.”
“Your what?” Quaid chuckles.
“My base, you fuckwit. In the Labyrinth. These hallways and passages were my training grounds. It was how Ares turned me into a warrior. It was how he turned me into a man.”
Star is frowning. She straightens up too and now no one is even paying attention to my nearly lifeless body on the ground. She says, “I don’t understand.”
“You wouldn’t, would you?” Surprisingly, this doesn’t come from Aric, but Quaid.
And he’s sneering at her. Like she repulses him.
“Why would you understand any of this? You’re some hidden-away Pleiades princess living out your cushy life in the mortal realm under the protection of Hera.
” His disgust is so obvious now, it’s getting weird. “You don’t know anything.”
Aric steps in front of Star, cutting off Quaid’s view of her. “What’s your problem?”
Quaid runs fingers through his hair, looking away. “Nothing.”
“I’ll tell you what his problem is,” Star peeks out from behind Aric. “His problem is, he can’t control me. Not even with the collar around my neck.”
Aric, like me, must take a moment to put all the pieces together, because he goes silent. Quaid, Mr. Nobody who works for Apollo, put a collar on Star. Why? I mean, collars imply possession and control, so I guess that’s not hard to figure out. But why would he need that control?
Hmm. Mr. Nobody, who seems to be in possession of some very magical sunglasses, came here with a directive.
Which isn’t a surprise, didn’t we all come here to get Star and take her back to someone?
We did.
But neither Aric nor myself are invested in the task.
It’s a job to us. I would not say kidnapping a hidden princess from the mortal realm is a regularly occurring request as a bounty hunter, but it’s on the list of services.
At least at my office. I don’t know what kind of bounty hunter business Aric runs.
For all I know, he only works for his father.
Which kinda makes sense, now that I think about it.
Ares is giving off greedy, controlling, selfish vibes and he’s not even here in the room with us.
Quaid is different. He’s not a demigod and he doesn’t live in Olympus. He’s a… well, employee is probably the nicest word to describe him, but slave is the most likely answer.
Unless he’s got some breeding on his pedigree that I don’t know about, he shouldn’t be in possession of glasses that have hidden powers. Gods, especially very powerful, high-ranking ones like Apollo, don’t just hand over magic sunglasses to mortals.
Again, Aric and I are on the same page, because just as I think this, he points to Quaid and says, “She’s your ticket, isn’t she?”
Quaid doesn’t say anything. Just shoves his hands in his pockets.
So Aric continues, practically reading my mind.
“You made a deal with Apollo.” Aric’s eyes go squinty, as do mine, as we both work out the next piece of the puzzle.
“What is she worth to you, Quaid? Hm? A one-way ticket into Olympus? A get-out-of-slavery-free card? What did Apollo promise you if you brought him Star?”
Quaid maintains his very detached, cool demeanor. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. The glasses are broken. They don’t work. So I hope you have a way out of your teenage-wet-dream room, because I sure don’t.”
I think I want to wake up now.
I want to participate in this exchange because there’s something happening here that needs to be worked out. But when I step over to my body on the ground, I don’t go back in.
It’s not ready for me. That monster must be very powerful if it affected me this way.
And I guess it would have to be, if Ares’s goal was to turn his son into a warrior.
The monster should be formidable and hard to kill.
Ares would want the consequences to be severe enough to shape Aric, should he ever fail.
I guess that’s why he’s such a dick.
I can’t die, not easily. Decapitation would do it.
But even then, under extenuating circumstances, I could technically be put back together.
My messenger stage—this ghost form that I’m in now—is supposed to be transient.
A blip of time—or, more accurately, no-time—in which I move through space. That’s how I get places so fast.
I’m not the messenger of the gods, that’s my father, Hermes. But the gift of travel was inherited, nonetheless. And now, it seems, I am stuck in this state. Already out of the game and I didn’t even know I was playing.
Aric has been staring at Quaid this whole time I was thinking, and now he lets out a breath.
“I’m gonna let this go,” he says, “but it’s not over.
I will figure out what you’re up to, Quaid.
But right now, I’d rather focus all my attention on getting the hell out of here without having to run this maze ten-thousand times before we kill the monster.
Because that’s the only way out that I know of.
And Declan here isn’t gonna be any help until he heals himself, obviously.
So instead of standing there looking like a surly asshole, why don’t you come up with some ideas. ”
Before Quaid can answer, Star steps out from behind Aric. “No.” She looks manic. “I’m not listening to his ideas and even if he came up with one, I’m not going anywhere with him!”
She starts this sentence angry, but she ends it absolutely furious. So furious, she gives off a powerful energy and three things happen at once.
First, the room brightens, then goes completely dark.
Second, Quaid’s sunglasses also go bright, but then they go black and start to glow a bright teal-green color.
And third, the walls all come to life. All those little symbols that Aric and I saw carved into the walls are now glowing with white light.
Some of the symbols I recognize from the academy I went to as a kid.
We had to learn all kinds of ancient languages.
But some of them are very strange and I have no idea what they mean.
It doesn’t matter, though, because the point is, they’re saying something.
Except, I don’t think anyone else can see this but me, because the lights are back on now, and both Aric and Quaid are discussing what just happened to his stupid sunglasses and aren’t saying anything at all about the walls.
Aric points to Star. This is when I start paying attention again. “It’s you,” he says.
She points to herself. “What’s me?”
“You’re the one making his glasses glitch like that.”
“So?” She’s very defensive.
“It’s not exactly her,” Quaid says. “I’ve already figured this out.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?” Aric asks.
He sneers at Star. “Because she’s not gonna like what I have to say.”
A moment of silence hangs after these words come out, and in this same moment my body must have repaired itself enough to pull me back in, because the next thing I know, I’m on the ground, sitting up.
It’s me who puts the last piece of the puzzle together. “She’s can power them.” Everyone looks down at me.
Star smiles. “You’re OK!”
“I’m OK.”
Aric offers me his hand. I take it, and he pulls me to my feet. “What were you saying now?”
I point at Star. “Her hidden magic. I think you unlocked it.”
“Unlocked it how?” Quaid asks. “Aric didn’t do anything but bring us to this ridiculous room filled with holographic strippers. I’m the one who put the collar on her.”
“You’re wrong,” I say. “He did something very important.” I point at Star again. “He knew your song. He said the words. And that’s all you needed to hear to come into your true power.”
Quaid almost snorts. “So what? You’re missing the point, Declan. Who cares about the song?” He looks at Aric. “You wanna know why I’m here?” He pans his arms wide, motioning to Star. “There is it. She’s a power source and Apollo wants to add her to his collection.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“How do you think he got so powerful, Declan? Come on, use those two brain cells inside your head. He steals it. Star is just one of many astral maidens who can control the movement of the constellations.” He reluctantly looks at Star and shrugs.
“It’s kind of a big deal. That’s why it brought my glasses back online. ”
“I don’t understand,” Star says. “How did I do that?”
“Emotions,” Quaid says. “You got emotional and it affected the tech inside the glasses. That’s not the only way to manifest your power, but exciting you is the easiest way.
” Now he looks at me and Aric. “If we can work her up a little, maybe I can get enough time to run a diagnostic and fix them. And if I can fix them,” he locks eyes with me.
“I can travel and take everyone with me.”
I shrug. “So. I can do that too.”
“So do it,” Aric says. “Get us the fuck out of here.”
Star rushes up to me, grabbing my arm, like I might leave her behind and she’s gonna make sure that doesn’t happen.
And I notice, out of the corner of my eye, that this makes Quaid’s glasses flash again.
It doesn’t come with darkness, but I see it.
Her fear of being left behind sparked up his glasses.
“All right,” I say, blowing out a breath. “Everyone skootch in.”
Aric and Quaid come closer until we’re all pressed together, and I close my eyes and manifest a park I saw in the mortal realm.
Nothing happens.
I try again, this time manifesting my home in Olympus.
Nothing happens.
“As I was saying,” Quaid sneers. “We’ve all lost our powers.” He looks at Aric. “Well, I don’t know what your power is, so maybe you still have it. But something tells me this place is your weakness.”
Aric doesn’t admit it, but we all know Quaid is right.
He’s right about all of it.
Star is the power he needs to get his glasses working again.
Star is the power I need to be able to travel again.
And if the maze is Aric’s weakness, then Star must be his strength.
And getting her excited about things is how we get our powers back.