The silence is deafening as Dr. Caville ambles down the stairs, careful not to scuff the leather of his shoes. He looks much the same as when you saw him last, a man in his prime, nothing like the man who originally hired you. His jaw is strong and there is only a regal touch of gray at his temples. He is the picture of strength and good health and the sight of him makes you want to curl up into a ball and die.

He has found you as he did every time you opened your case. You had put it together last night, realizing that he had shown up at the same terminal in the airport mere hours after you. He had followed you to the first hideout, then the Madrasah Gate that he burned down and consumed, but he never went to the hotel. A single, notable outlier. A place where you had been too tired to open your new case. The case had prevented him from tracking you, likely the same way it prevented Oracles from seeing the Artifacts inside.

In giving the case to you, Kael saved your life. In opening the case, Apollo risks it.

You make eye contact with Kael and Opal and shake your head vigorously. Kael’s eyes go wide in realization and she whispers something in Opal’s ear who whitens.

Apollo has no such fear. “Who the hell are you?”

Dr. Caville continues down the stairs toward you, ignoring him.

“Answer me,” Apollo shouts, “I am Zeus, god of this city”

“I knew the real Zeus,” Caville responds blandly. “I am unimpressed.”

Apollo growls in anger and summons a ball of fire in his hands, brighter than you’ve ever seen. It leaps from his hand and flies at Caville, filling the cavern with its heat.

Then it’s gone.

Caville rolls his shoulders and continues walking. Apollo falls back in his chair, stunned.

Kael and Opal edge away toward the back of the cave while Apollo and the Oracles are distracted. You want to join them but Caville’s attention is focused solely on you.

“You’ve led me on a hell of a chase, professor,” he says, grabbing an Oracle by the face and tossing her aside.

“How was your flight?” you ask, grasping for conversational straws.

“Flights,” he corrects with a note of displeasure, “At least I didn't have to sail like the old days”

“An Eater,” Apollo interrupts with wonder, finally piecing it together. He stares at Caville with renewed fascination.

“You should take better care of this,” Caville says, reaching down to scoop up the broken jar of grave dirt.

“So that’s how you’ve been tracking me?”

“Yes.” He strokes the glass lovingly. “The dirt where they buried my body. I thought you knew after you scattered it in some Mayan temple and threw me off the scent for a few hours.”

Apollo is drinking in every word, looking like a kid meeting his favorite movie star for the first time. You half believe he is going to ask for an autograph soon. He does the next best thing.

“Eater,” he says, his voice suddenly regal, “I come before you as a peer and offer to share my knowledge for some of your own”

“Quiet child,” Caville says without looking at him.

Apollo looks affronted which gives you an idea. “Yes,” you say, waving a careless hand at him, “The adults are talking.”

His face goes a beat red. The Oracles respond to his anger, moving toward Caville. He snags a charged one and looks at it with disinterest. “Human artifacts, how quaint.”

This is too much for Apollo and he pulls out an ancient looking rod from his pocket. You don’t need to be an Oracle to see that it is an artifact. The tip glows a cherry red and you dive for cover.

A bang like a gunshot sets your ears ringing, shaking the cavern and filling the air with choking stone dust. You cough and crawl away from Caville.

Apollo has Caville’s full attention now. Caville picks himself up off the ground where the force of his fall left cracks in the shining marble. He growls a sound that sets your heart racing and closes a fist. The lights flicker.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

An Oracle throws himself at him from the side and Caville catches him by the throat without even looking, pulling the magic and crushing his windpipe in the same move. He discards the Oracle like a broken puppet and stalks toward Apollo.

Apollo doesn’t back down, walking down the dias with his rod extended, firing blast after blast at Caville. A manic smile twists his face.

The cave rumbles with the force of the blasts. Stones fall from the ceiling, shattering on the floor and sending razor sharp shards into your ankles. At the far end of the cave, Opal shoves Kael out of the way of a large stone. It catches her instead and she collapses to the ground, completely limp.

Kael throws her over her shoulder and breaks into a sprint, ducking behind the throne and out of sight.

You follow, running away from the fight as fast as you can, scooping up your case from where Apollo threw it aside. You risk one look back over your shoulder

Caville is fighting off the entirety of Apollo's army, pulling the energy out of the charged Oracles. Apollo refills them just as fast, hurling bolts of energy at Caville from his rod, and, when that stops working, from his hands.

You dart around the throne and through an archway, entering Apollo’s private rooms for the second day in a row. The first person who was ever grateful to be there.

Kael crouches to the left of the door, sheltering Opal’s unconscious form with her body. You collapse next to them, chest heaving more from adrenaline than exertion.

“Looks like you were right about the case,” Kael says by way of greeting.

“Unfortunately,” you reply. “How is she?”

“That was a heavy hit,” she says, putting a worried hand on Opal’s shoulder.

You stand up and begin searching for a way out, but the room is much the same as the one next door. It’s a complete mess with no sign of another exit. Apollo thought himself invincible and hubris was going to get you killed.

You open the case and review your options there. Seeking glints at you, its jade beads fully charged and ready, but you refuse to abandon your friends. Kael and Opal have saved your life at so many turns.

The rest are useless. The map and the compass have no combat or tactical powers that you know of. You could use the compass to read the Enchanting book and maybe find a spell that could beat an Eater, but it’s a desperate gamble at best. He wouldn’t have survived millenia if any random spell could kill him. The best Apollo could do was knock him down for a minute.

Apollo could win, you suppose, but an honest examination kills this idea before it goes anywhere.

The el-Arak glints from the shadows and you shiver and look away. You are not sure you are prepared to become a murderer again, even if it would be for the good of the city and the world. Armored flesh repels a stain, but your hands still feel black with guilt.

Kael reaches over your shoulder and fingers the necklace, turning the beads in her hands. “This can get you out,” she says, her voice certain.

“Oracles can tell that?” you ask, surprised. You had never shared the powers of the Artifacts and she had never asked.

“No, but I can,” she answers. “It will take anyone who wears it though you’ll need to charge it more. Take Opal and get out of here” Her eyes have a far away look to them with the smallest touches of emerald at the corners.

Screaming echoes from the other room, a high frantic thing that puts your hair on end. You feel your hackles rise as everything in you tells you to flee and never look back.

“What about you?” you ask, though you already know the answer.

“I have a duty to send my maker to his own,” she says, then shrugs, “And perhaps this eater can take out her peer.”

She grabs the el-Arak. You move to stop her, but she slips your grip easily and grabs you by the shirt, suddenly fierce. “I’m holding you to your promise.”

You look at Opal and nod gravely.

To your surprise, Kael pushes you back and sticks out a hand. “It has been a pleasure, Professor Knight.”

You take it. “Likewise.”

She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, unsheathing the dagger. She nods after a moment and slashes open her palm without a trace of hesitation. Blood sprays the ground, where it turns black and tar-like.

Ebony vines spring out from the cut on her hand, plunging in and out of her skin like rocks skipping over her flesh as they climb toward her neck. She goes rigid and her eyes shoot open. Not brown, not green, but black as night.

“Goodbye,” she says, her voice echoing through several octaves. Her fiery grin is half Kael and half something else.

She sprints from the room and is gone.

You snatch up the necklace and pull Opal close enough to fit it around both of your necks. Your hand hesitates over the map and the compass before you decide that it doesn’t matter, you can always transfer the power between them. You pull from the compass and the calming sensation of the Blue Rose fills you, though even that is not enough to stave off the pain that grips your heart. The thought of Kael’s sacrifice opens a void that all the magic in the world can’t fill.

The cave shakes again as though hit by a massive earthquake. Something crashes to the ground just outside the door. A woman screams, though whether it is in pain or pleasure, you can’t tell.

She is as good as dead. You remember the warnings you read when you first found the dagger. The el-Arak will consume its host quickly, using their body to wreak havoc on the world for as long as their bones and tendons hold out.

The world blurs as your eyes fill with tears.

You just hope that she can take the Eater with her.

The room shakes again as you push the power from your body into the necklace around your neck and activate it.

The room blinks out of existence.

And Kael along with it.