Chapter Twenty-One - I Tell A Few White Lies
Posted: Monday 8th April 2024

"Ri?" Apollo jumped up from the sofa. He was holding a bow and the wall in front of him had many arrows sticking out of it, some silver some gold. Artemis was sat beside him, looking 12 years old as ever. She too was holding a bow as well and I got the impression that the two gods were bored and were blindly shooting arrows at the wall moments before I arrived.

I scrambled out of my kneeling position and up to my feet, "Hi!" I said, trying to pretend nothing was wrong. Even I could hear my own voice shaking as I took in Nyx's command and her implications.

"What's wrong?" Apollo asked as he approached me, "I thought you were staying at camp, you said it was too difficult to get here?"

I waved his words aside with what I tried to make sound like a carefree laugh, "proved not to be apparently. Zeus is getting sloppy with the protections around Olympus, although I bet he'll tighten them up when he finds out I'm here and I probably won't be able to leave again for a while."

The lies slipped so seamlessly from my lips that I was sure Apollo, the god of truth, believed every single word I said. My heart ached, a part of my deep down didn't want to lie to him, but that was overwritten by what my mother decreed.

Do not speak of this to anyone, she had said. That order left me with no choice but to dance around the truth with the person I loved.

Apollo looked at me quizzically but didn't seem to doubt my words. I wondered how Apollo was so easily able to believe that I would willingly abandon my friends to face whatever the gods were hiding from, but then mentally slapped myself, remembering that he was a god. The lives of mortals, even demigods were somewhat trivial to him. Just because he loved me, didn't mean what mattered to me- my friends at Camp Halfblood- mattered as much to him.

"Well it's nice to see you," Apollo said, pulling me into his arms, "it calls for a hiku I think."

He thought for a moment as Artemis groaned loudly from the sofa.

"Please no more Hikus!" She begged, "it is bad enough that father had confined us to Olympus, please do not incentivise the torture anymore."

Apollo ignored her and grinned, a hiku clearly having come to his mind.

"Ri is back home.

My joy has returned to me.

Now I am happy."

Artemis' groans grew louder as she belittled him for how terrible his hiku was, but I barely heard their bickering. I was frozen in place with the fake smile on my face.

The lines of the prophecy swirled through my head.

The joy of the sun will delve the depths,

And discover what she least expects.

My mother called me the joy of the sun and Apollo called me his joy. What could it mean? What depths and what did I least expect?

The god of prophecy was ignorant to my line of thought as he and his sister bickered like children. Meanwhile, I felt as though the world was about to come crashing down around me, powerless to do anything but sit here on Olympus due to my mothers decree.

*

Once again I found myself imprisoned on Olympus. But this time, no one realised I was imprisoned so I was forced to pretend to be happy whilst inside I was reeling.

After the initial imposition of Nyx's orders had worn off, I tried to tell Apollo about what had happened, but my tongue was tied. I tried to leave, but it was as if the shadows were locked to me, I couldn't quite bring myself to take the step into the darkness and shadow travel away, the doors to Olympus were sealed so I had no way of leaving.

As the winter solstice came and went I had no news. I wasn't sure if this was the kind of situation where no news was good news, but when Apollo told me that Hera herself wanted to speak to me, I knew that was bad news.

I dragged my feet the whole way to the throne room where the goddess waited for me. I hadn't ever spoken to the goddess of marriage. My godly interactions were limited to Apollo, Hermes, Zeus, Artemis and Mr D along with my mother and Thanatos.

I had no idea why she wanted to speak to me, but I went lest she smite me.

When I emerged into the throne room, Hera was sat alone on her throne, waiting for me.

She eyed me and smiled. The goddess got to her feet and shrunk down so that she was the size of a normal human rather than a 30 foot tall goddess.

"Ariadne," she said, "why are you here?"

"What?" I frowned, I hadn't known what to expect, but it wasn't this, "you asked me to meet you."

"I mean on Olympus."

"Can a girl not just want to spend some time with her husband? I thought you would understand that as the goddess of marriage."

"The prophecy is in motion," the goddess said, ignoring my snide remark, "the pieces have been in play for a long time, those three you met at camp. Jason, Leo and Piper, they freed me from the imprisonment of the giants-."

"The giants?" I demanded. I shuddered, I had avoided the giants like the plague in Tartarus, they were imposing and always got excited when they smelt me near. They were not fans of anything to do with Olympus, even if that something happened to be a daughter of Nyx.

"Yes, the giants." Hera confirmed, "Gaia is rising."

"No way," I said, mostly to myself, "she would have told me."

Hera raised an eyebrow, "you speak to Gaia."

I shook my head, but my voice caught in my throat as I tried to speak, to tell her that I had spoken to my mother.

A look of understanding dawned across Hera's face, "ah, that is why you're here."

I couldn't even nod, I just stood there, unable to confirm what she already knew. That my mother had forbidden me from leaving Olympus.

Hera frowned, "I wonder if Nyx will take a side in the coming war." She fixed me with a look, "perhaps you will fight against us?" It was a question. A question that I didn't know how to answer.

"I don't know," I admitted, "but my loyalties lie with Nyx." As usual, the words felt sour on my tongue, as if someone else was speaking them through me.

Hera didn't say anything for a while, she seemed lost in thought.

"You are not one of my seven," the goddess seemed to decide this as she spoke, "but you do have a part in this prophecy, I am just not yet sure of if that part will be of use to me."

"Sorry," I said, slightly sarcastically.