Saxon’s mythos was unique. Traditionally, the power of a mythos manifests based on the person’s interpretation of the myth itself. It’s for this reason that it’s impossible to manifest a mythos that you have no knowledge of, and why often people who manifest a mythos have some strong tie to it.

On the flip side, Saxon’s mythos was very different, since he copied the power of other myths. Rather than an understanding of the myth he was copying, Saxon’s power was based on an understanding of the avatar that embodied it. The better Saxon’s understanding of the avatar’s myth--essentially their life story--the less taxing it was for Saxon to copy it.

Additionally, Saxon’s use of the mythos was limited to what he knew the avatar could do with it. A copycat could never surpass the original.

This was the primary reason Saxon made so many visits to the Underworld. By talking to the prisoners, Saxon would be able to learn more about them and thus access their mythoi. However, over time, Saxon began visiting to simply hear their stories, but that wouldn’t be the case today.

Saxon had a plan for later today, and to pull it off, he would need both James’ mythos and Ina’s mythos.

“Hello there Mr. Martin,” Saxon said, opening the door to the room. “Do you mind if I call you James?”

“Go right ahead,” James said, removing his feet from the table.

“Oh, you can keep your feet on the table,” Saxon said.

“Well alright then,” James said, propping his feet back up.

Saxon shut the door behind him. “Sorry about the interrogation room. I wanted to talk without glass between us.”

“This ain’t an interrogation?” James questioned.

“Not really,” Saxon said. “I just wanted to ask some questions.”

“So it is an interrogation,” James responded, smirking.

“Call it what you want,” Saxon said, “I just want to talk.”

“Heard about you,” James said, changing the topic of the conversation.

“Have you now?” Saxon asked, taking a seat across from James.

“Hard not to,” James asserted. “I’m curious. Why do you do this?”

“Do what?” Saxon asked.

“Talk to us,” James answered. “People rave about you Saxon.”

“Good to see you know my name,” Saxon said. “Can I get you anything?”

“I’m good,” James said.

“Then how about we get started,” Saxon suggested, opening James’ file.

“Could you answer my question first?” James requested.

Saxon stopped reading the file and looked up at James. “Why do I do this?”

James nodded his head.

Saxon leaned back in his chair and put his arm around the back of his chair. “Your whole life boils down to just one bad decision, that’s what this file tells me. I don’t believe that. So what is it leaving out? That’s what I wanna know.”

“Go for it,” James said.

Saxon sat back straight and pulled out some sheets from the file. “Well, let’s start with what I do know. Name is James Martin, and your mythos is The Gray Man.”

“That’s right,” James said.

“What’s this Gray Man?” Saxon asked, already aware of the answer.

“It’s a military term,” James answered, “typically used by spies.”

“Well, what does it mean?” Saxon inquired.

“It’s more of a theory than anything else,” James responded. “The idea is that whenever you’re trying to blend in, you want to become a gray man. Somebody who is easily ignored, and forgotten.”

“So it seems your mythos turned you into a Gray Man,” Saxon stated, flipping through the file. “People didn’t notice you in public, couldn’t remember your face, and some even forgot your name.”

“All those things did happen,” James confirmed.

“When did you awaken your mythos?” Saxon asked.

“Middle school,” James answered.

“What were you doing in middle school that got you looking at military terminology?” Saxon asked jokingly.

James cracked a smile. “Went down a whole spy rabbit hole after watching some series. I’m struggling to remember the name.”

“Eye Spy?” Saxon suggested.

James’ face light up with recognition. “Yes! How did I forget? Eye Spy …”

“The spy with a bionic eye,” James and Saxon said in unison, before both laughing together.

“I loved that series too, man,” Saxon said with a smile. “Did you know that they came out with books?”

“No way,” James said in disbelief.

“Totally,” Saxon said. “I’ll get you one next time I drop in.”

“You do that for me?” James asked.

“Anytime,” Saxon said. “But still, middle school sounds rough, especially for your mythos.”

“What makes you say that?” James inquired.

“You show up one day, and suddenly everybody pretends like you don’t exist,” Saxon said. “I wouldn't want that.”

“Neither did I,” James said. “Every kid wants to be the popular one, but that was impossible for me.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Saxon remarked.

“Do you know the awkward feeling when the teacher forgets your name or doesn’t pass you a test, and then you gotta remind them?” James asked.

“I’m familiar,” Saxon said, nodding his head.

“Yeah that happened all the time,” James lamented. “I didn’t get picked for groups, because people forgot I was an option, but at the time I didn’t know that.”

“Of course,” Saxon said, “since you didn’t know you were an avatar.”

“Exactly,” James replied. “Takes a toll on you. They apologized for forgetting and told me that it wasn't my fault. Even still, being so unmemorable plummets your self-esteem.”

“Your family treat you any differently?” Saxon asked.

“Definitely,” James replied. “Arguments between mom and dad carried on right in front of my face because they forgot I was there. Earlier, they at least had the decency to stick me in my room before the yelling started.”

Saxon recalled the file mentioning that James’ parents were divorced and that he had family aside from them. “What about your little brother?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

James stared at the table without answering. Saxon got nervous. He was worried he pushed too far too fast.

“Johnny never forgot a thing,” James said, breaking the long silence. “I learned tons of tricks, to try and make myself more memorable in school.”

“Really?” Saxon said, surprised.

“Yeah, yeah,” James replied. “I thought if I could brand myself as the yo-yo guy or the magic guy, then it would help people remember me.”

“How’d that work out?” Saxon asked.

“It didn’t,” James responded. “But I would always practice the tricks with Johnny, and he wouldn’t forget. There were times he would ask me to do a trick months later, and I’d have to tell him that I couldn’t.”

“So when did you figure out you had a mythos?” Saxon inquired.

James shook his head trying to remember the answer. “Years later, after high school.”

“That long?” Saxon asked.

“Well I just thought it was me,” James explained. “Looking back at it, obviously something strange was going on, but as a kid, I was none the wiser.”

“Then how’d you figure it out?” Saxon asked.

“I had a classmate in college who was an avatar,” James said. “She was confused why everyone was forgetting me so easily and figured something was amiss. Ended up taking me to a specialist who confirmed that I was an avatar, and helped to identify my mythos.”

“Must’ve been a big relief,” Saxon remarked, “to learn that it wasn’t you.”

“Should’ve been,” James said, dejected. “That girl who helped me, her name is Maeve Killian.”

“Oh, I see,” Saxon said.

The name Killian was all over James’ file. From what Saxon knew, they were a prominent crime family in Fable. They were the reason James was in the Underworld, to begin with. James had been working for the Killians, running around, and infiltrating other families using his mythos.

Saxon looked down at his watch. “Well, I believe that’s all the time we have.”

In Saxon’s mind, there was no reason to dive any deeper. James’ dealings with the Killians were all laid out in his file. Also, Saxon didn’t want to dredge up bad memories. From what he could gather, James was coerced into working for the Killains after they helped him to identify his mythos.

“Don’t forget to bring that book,” James reminded Saxon.

“I won’t,” Saxon said, getting up from his chair and exiting the room.

On his walk back to the front desk, Saxon decided to give James’ mythos a try. He’d heard enough about James’ story to copy his mythos without draining himself--given that its effect was minor, it also helped to reduce the toll on Saxon’s body.

As Saxon approached the desk, he called upon the mythos of The Gray Man. Then, he stood in front of the desk and waited for Robin to notice.

“Hey man,” Saxon called out, getting tired of waiting.

Robin’s head snapped in Saxon’s direction. “Sorry about that, I didn’t see you there. You are …”

Saxon felt this was enough to confirm that the mythos was working, so he dropped it.

“Saxon!” Robin exclaimed, finally remembering the name. “Everything done with James?”

“Yeah, I’m ready to see Ina,” Saxon replied.

“Alright, I’ll send her to the same room,” Robin replied.

“Thanks,” Saxon said.

While waiting for Ina, Saxon started practicing more with The Gray Man. He wanted to get a better feel for what kind of toll it took on his body. As opposed to something like Loki which was an active transformation, The Gray Man was more subtle, and thus taxed Saxon’s body far less.

Eventually, Robin informed Saxon that Ina was all ready, and so Saxon made his way over to the room.

“Hey Ina,” Saxon said, entering the room.

Saxon had already visited Ina a few times, so he didn’t need to spend as long with her, as he did with James. Although Ina's mythos was powerful, Saxon only used it sparingly since he knew so little about it, and the only way he did know how to use it, consumed a lot of energy.

“Sup Saxon,” Ina replied. “What you got for me today?”

“Wanted to talk about your mythos,” Saxon answered, figuring it was best to be as direct as possible.

“You already know Eddi is obsessed with talking about our mythoi,” Ina complained. “How could Raijin be more interesting than me?”

“I mean he’s a god of lightning, thunder, storms,” Saxon said. “Seems like a pretty interesting guy if you ask me.”

“But compared to me?” Ina questioned, raising her eyebrow and cocking her head.

“Fair enough,” Saxon said. “I’m more interested in this than anything else.”

Saxon took a seat and opened Ina’s file. He flipped to a specific section, then placed it in front of her. Ina looked down to see several images from dead cameras.

“So you are interested in me,” Ina asserted, smirking.

“How’d you do it?” Saxon asked. “Turning off the cameras, and calling down lightning bolts don’t seem similar to me.”

“Why are you so curious?” Ina questioned. “I thought you were my friend, and now you feel like a cop.”

“I’m both those things,” Saxon reminded Ina.

“Well I liked you better before,” Ina said.

Saxon sighed. “Listen, there’s a guy robbing banks, and he keeps cutting the cameras. Other cops wanted me to ask you how you did it, to see if there’s any connection. They know we talk.”

Lying was the quickest way to get the answers Saxon was after, and right now Saxon wanted to minimize his time spent on this.

“What’s in it for me?” Ina asked.

“That new game console you were talking about, I’ll get it for you” Saxon offered.

Ina considered Saxon’s proposal. “I want some games with it.”

“How many?” Saxon asked.

“I think 5 is fair,” Ina said.

Saxon’s eyes narrowed. “I feel 1 is plenty, you’re already getting plenty with the console itself.”

“The games included with the console always suck,” Ina protested. “I’m not going lower than three.”

“You drive a hard bargain,” Saxon said.

Ina outstretched her hand to try and seal the deal.

“3 it is,” Saxon said, shaking Ina’s hand.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Ina said.

“So,” Saxon said, sitting down, “how’d you do it?”

“There’s one big difference between the lightning bolts, and shutting off cameras,” Ina said.

“Which is?” Saxon asked.

“Creation versus manipulation,” Ina said. “With the lightning bolts, it's a lot harder, because I’m manifesting it from thin air. The cameras on the other hand take more finesse, but once you get used to it, it's a lot easier.”

“Well, why’s that?” Saxon asked, listening intently.

“Because the electricity is already there,” Ina replied. “I don’t have to create anything, just manipulate what’s already there. When I stop the flow of electricity, all the cameras lose power.”

“So you just think, and it shuts off?” Saxon inquired.

Ina shook her head. “You can’t manipulate what you can’t see. First I had to work on visualizing the electricity around me. Only after I could do that, did I start trying to change it.”

Saxon glanced over at his phone, and invoked Raijin, attempting to visualize the electricity as Ina had described.

“Are you expecting a text?” Ina asked, wondering why Saxon was staring at his phone.

“No,” Saxon responded, not taking his eyes off the phone. “Just trying to imagine what the flow of electricity feels like?”

“Hard to explain,” Ina said, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s kinda like how something is warm or cold, but instead of a heat sensation, it’s more like a buzzing.”

Saxon continued staring at his phone. After a few seconds, he started to hear a low buzzing sound coming from it. Out of curiosity Saxon reached for it but recoiled when the buzzing sound flared up. A text message suddenly appeared on his phone screen.

“Looks like you did get a text,” Ina remarked, leaning over to look at Saxon’s phone screen.

“I guess I did,” Saxon said, pocketing his phone. “Alright, I think that’s enough for today.”

“I’ll send you the list of games whenever I can,” Ina said.

“I’ll be on the lookout,” Saxon responded, exiting the room.

Walking back to the front desk, Saxon pulled out his phone to read the text message. It was from Octave, informing Saxon that Elly got him a phone and that she said to save his number. Saxon did just that, and replied, telling Octave not to break the phone.

“All done,” Saxon said as he approached the front desk.

Once again, Saxon wanted to use this as an opportunity to ensure everything was working properly. He called upon Raijin and focused on the computer Robin had been using until he started to hear a faint buzzing noise. This time, he focused on muffling that sound as much as possible, and quickly it fell to complete silence.

“Alright Saxon,” Robin said, “let me just check you out.”

“Thank you very much,” Saxon said, waiting to see if the computer would work.

Robin began clicking the mouse repeatedly, and let out a deep sigh. “Computer’s busted.”

“Try it again,” Saxon suggested, ceasing his use of Raijin.

Robin clicked again, and the screen illuminated. “There we go! Sorry about that. You are all set to go.”

“Catch you around,” Saxon said, leaving the Underworld.

Overall, Saxon was pleased with the results of his expedition. Just as Ina had mentioned, manipulating the electricity wasn’t too draining on Saxon. Combining this new use of Raijin with The Gray Man allowed Saxon to have a low-energy mythoi combination to help sneak past both people and security systems--something he would be needing very shortly.

Stepping out onto the street, Saxon hailed a taxi. Quickly, a taxi pulled up next to him.

“Where to?” the driver asked as Saxon entered the vehicle.

“Can you take me downtown?” Saxon asked.

“I can take you anywhere in Fable,” the driver replied, “if you got the money.”

“Perfect,” Saxon said. “Take me to Midas headquarters.”