Bryce

We followed Zelaeth to the double doors, which opened to release a wave of herbal scented smoke that billowed out into the courtyard. We entered the large throne room, because it was in fact a throne room with an actual proper throne, to see Chorus patiently waiting for us, completely naked with his chin resting on his left fist and a golden goblet held in his right. That’s when Thea started laughing.

“I’m sorry, it’s just too much,” Thea apologized through fits of laughter. “Like, the fake Elysia and the stone temple are one thing, but the billowing smoke followed by a literal throne room, and then that goblet? Is it actual gold?”

“It really is a bit much, isn’t it?” Chorus chuckled good-naturedly as he took a sip from his goblet. “There’s a certain amount of performance that’s expected when you meet a god. Over the centuries, I’ve discovered that it’s often easier for me to indulge that expectation than it is to deal with fools who forget when they’re talking to somebody much more powerful than them.”

I elbowed Thea, and she straightened up enough to wipe the tears from her eyes. “Right, sorry. I promise I’ll be good. It’s just seeing the way you acted with Esme on our ship. It’s impossible for me not to see you as just a big, cuddly teddy bear.”

“Thea is clearly a lost cause.” Chorus shook his head and directed his attention towards me. “Please tell me the mortal is intimidated, at least.”

“You’re obviously powerful, and I have immense respect for what you’ve created with your temples, but no, I wouldn’t say I’m very intimidated. Sorry.” The combination of seeing him with Esme aboard the ship, Thea’s laughter, and Nes’s warning made Chorus seem little more threatening than an overbearing dad. Honestly, my own father was far more intimidating.

Chorus just shrugged at my admission. “Well, there’s not much to be done for it, and I can settle for respect. Now, why was it you wanted to meet with me?”

“There are a few things. First, Lilith was planning on meeting me and Thea here tomorrow evening to deal with an issue related to the Malvoch situation.” I paused to think for a moment before continuing. “She didn’t mention involving you in it, but I thought you’d appreciate at least knowing.”

“I do appreciate that, thank you. I’ll probably try to attend whatever planning meeting you have, if only to stay updated. Esmer is involved, which means I should at least know what’s going on.” Chorus frowned, as if just now realizing that his daughter wasn’t with us.

“Esme stayed behind to deal with a different problem.” Thea stepped forward to explain. “She wanted you to know that she’s okay, and not to worry about her.”

The god seemed to relax with the explanation and smiled as he spoke. “Very well, in that case, what was the other thing you wished to discuss?”

“Well, it goes back to the issue with Thea and Esme. I’m not sure how much you know of it, but the problems all started when Thea was caught cheating in Vurdex’s casino.”

“I’m aware of at least that much.” Chorus leaned back into his chair. “I’m assuming you want help with Vurdex? He doesn’t usually take kindly to cheaters, especially not cheaters who profit from it. My recommendation is to return what you won and offer something valuable in recompense.”

I shook my head. “Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. The winnings included Esme’s soul stone, which, even if we were willing to give away, doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Why would Esmer have a soul stone created?” Chorus furrowed his brows as he asked the question, and I looked to Thea to answer.

“Uh, right…” Thea started rubbing at the back of her neck in her usual way. “Well, we were drunk one night and there’s this witch we know, and Esme really didn’t want to end up in Kai’s afterlife if she ever died. Plus, we thought it would be a super cool sisterly bonding moment if we both got soul stones and gave them to each other.” Chorus and I both stared at Thea, unsure what to say.

“Anyway.” I turned back to address Chorus. “The end result is that we can’t repay Vurdex, and wouldn’t want to even if we could.”

“So, you’d like me to intervene?” He raised an eyebrow, and I shook my head.

“No. Well, not directly anyway. Liches are notoriously difficult to kill, and I’m worried that if we try to strong-arm him, then he’ll harbor resentment and be a problem in the future.”

“That’s surprisingly forward thinking for a mortal. In that case, what is it you need from me?”

“I was hoping you’d be able to provide something of a gift to help motivate him to forgive Esme and Thea. The only issue is, I’m not sure what would work…” I trailed off in thought for a moment before remembering to add one last detail. “Mind you, it doesn’t need to be too big of a concession. I believe I already have enough on Vurdex to force him to drop the issue, but I still need something to let him save face. Since the whole thing was Esme’s plan to begin with, I figured an apology gift from you on her behalf would suffice.”

“What sort of gift?” Chorus seemed curious and wasn’t rejecting the idea outright, which made me hopeful.

“I’m not sure. Your domain is debauchery, which doesn’t necessarily include gambling, but I did notice you had blackjack tables in your club. So, I was hoping you’d have an idea.”

“The Lord of Debauchery is just a moniker, my actual mantle is indulgence.” Chorus continued his explanation while half lost in thought. “It’s actually pretty common for a god’s title to be different from their actual mantle. For example, Tess’s mantle doesn’t actually include sharing knowledge, Sylvis isn’t a nature goddess, and Kai being a trickster is mostly just a personality flaw. It’s like that for most of us.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Wait, what?” I was completely taken aback and couldn’t even muster more than those two words.

“Oh sure, I knew that.” Thea chimed in helpfully. “Well, the part about Kai’s domain being luck or something. I didn’t know the stuff about Sylvis or Tess… isn’t Sylvis a literal tree? How is her domain not nature?”

“Sylvis is a dryad, which contributes to the confusion surrounding her mantle. Well, that and she kills most sapient creatures she meets, which is somewhat ironic since her actual mantle is life.”

“What’s Tess’s mantle if not knowledge?” I asked as my mind raced to make sense of what the literal god was telling me.

“Well, it’s still knowledge of a sort, just specifically forbidden knowledge. Which again, is ironic since most academies have her as their patron goddess.” Chorus must have finally processed what Thea had said, because he furrowed his brows at her. “Kai’s first mantle was luck, but it evolved when she became the aspect of chaos. I didn’t think there were many people still alive who knew that though, where did you learn it?”

“La’akea told me while I was in Kai’s domain.” Thea shrugged. “I’m pretty sure she explained the whole ‘aspect of chaos’ thing too, but I didn’t retain all that much of it since I was busy fighting her like two minutes later.”

“I’m surprised you managed to fight La’akea and live. She should be much more powerful than you. Especially in her mistress’s domain.”

“Chorus, is luck still a part of Kai’s domain?” I asked as I started making connections and my heart began to race.

“To a certain extent.” The god paused for what felt like an eternity before explaining. “The luck aspect is still there. It just manifests itself in a much more chaotic way. It’s difficult to predict and impossible for her to control, but after the fact, you can usually see the influence. It’s one of the reasons why Kai is considered so powerful, beyond just her pure strength as an aspect instead of a god.”

“Could it manifest as, say, Thea getting summoned to the mortal plane moments before a lich killed her? Or perhaps us arriving just as a group of mercenaries are trying to kidnap the only person who could help resurrect Esme?” There were about a half dozen other instances of us getting ridiculously lucky over the past few months that immediately came to mind, and if there were that many, then how many more were there that I didn’t know about?

Chorus smiled at my revelation. He clearly hadn’t realized what was going on in my mind. “I’d say those are excellent examples of how her mantle could work.”

“Bryce, what’s wrong? What are you thinking?” Thea moved over to me to grab my hand in order to comfort me.

I tried to wrangle my thoughts into the one question that was most pressing. “Thea, how would Aris benefit from kidnapping Persephone?”

At first Thea just blinked up at me, dumbfounded, then she seemed to put actual thought into my question. However, Chorus was the first to respond.

“I appear to be further outside the loop than I expected. What does Lilith’s daughter have to do with the current situation?”

“She was kidnapped earlier…” I checked the time with my implants and was surprised to learn that it was a little past five in the morning. “Uh, earlier last night. Whoever did the kidnapping knew Lilith’s true name, so we suspect Malvoch had something to do with it.”

Chorus frowned. “Persephone could be used as leverage, but if Malvoch already knew Lilith’s true name, then I have to imagine he would use that instead of kidnapping her daughter.”

“If Aris is involved, then maybe he just wants to blackmail Orrid into letting him out of Tartarus.” Thea answered with a frown. “But I don’t understand the connection. How does Aris come into this?”

“Blackmail Orrid? Why would…” Chorus’s eyes went wide as he stood from his throne. “Zeleath, leave us and don’t speak a word of what you heard during this meeting.”

“At once, father.” Zeleath answered from behind us, and I nearly jumped out of my skin, having completely forgotten he was still standing there. Once he had left, Chorus continued.

“If I am to understand your meaning, then Orrid is Persephone’s father?”

I wasn’t sure if we should answer that, so I looked towards Thea, and she just shrugged before responding. “Well, yeah. Lilith told us after we found out Stephy was missing, and if you were planning on being at the meeting later, then she probably would’ve told you there.”

Chorus nodded solemnly before turning to me. “Bryce, why do you believe Aris is involved?”

“Kai’s mantle.” I answered immediately, which just caused a pair of confused looks to be directed at me, so I explained. “There have been a number of extremely improbable events since the incident in the casino, and normally I’d just credit them to dumb luck, but with your explanation as to Kai’s mantle, it all makes a lot more sense.”

“Okay, but what does that have to do with Aris?” Thea asked, clearly still confused.

“Well, I quickly went over each of the major improbable events and realized that for the most part, they had a reasonably obvious direct benefit except for two. One of which was you returning from Elysia exactly in time to meet up with Ashaiya, where she explained that Aris was preventing your siblings from undergoing an aspect shift. If we assume that wasn’t a coincidence, then learning all that information must have been important. I’m just not sure how.”

“It’s possible that it could be Kai’s mantle at work, but Aris is imprisoned in Tartarus,” Chorus pointed out. “And even if he wasn’t, how would he prevent an aspect shift? As far as I’m aware, that’s impossible.”

“The whole business stinks.” Thea exhaled dramatically as she shook her head. “Ash claimed they had a relic that was creating a fake afterlife for mortals who still follow dad, and that Aris was ‘acting as a moral anchor’ to stop everybody from shifting, whatever that means. She also said Aris had a limp from one of my pranks, which is total bullshit.”

Chorus nodded slowly before speaking. “That is all very suspicious, and while I don’t think it’s conclusive evidence that Aris is involved, I do believe it’s concerning enough that we shouldn’t wait until tonight to discuss it in detail.”

I was about to ask how he wanted to proceed when he reached an arm out and two glowing ritual circles appeared in the room between us. Moments later, Lilith was standing in one of the circles, still wearing her ebony armor. She smiled at the naked god. “Chorus, I was just making arrangements to visit Hades, in accordance with my oaths. But if one of the resident gods summons me to his temple unprompted, then I suppose that constitutes enough of a gray area that it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.”

“Although, it’ll no doubt be a political nightmare for me if word gets out that you left Hel without approval.” An unfamiliar voice brimming with barely contained power spoke from behind me and I froze the moment I realized who that must be. “What’s this about Chorus? I don’t have time for your games.”

Lilith shook her head at the cold reception. “It’s always a pleasure to see you too, Orrid.”