“Now we hatch a plan,” Cleo had said after Maddie told them the whole story.
It was a good plan, or so Cleo and Gaius thought. Maddie wasn’t so sure. The plan involved her going to see Tereus. It was the last thing she wanted to do.
She walked totally normally to the house where Tereus had trained her, which, of course, meant that she stuck out. She was desperately trying to be sneaky, and it was obvious to everyone. She also had a giant black sword strapped to her back. Gaius had rigged up a series of straps and buckles that would allow her to flick a switch to release the blade. She had practiced with it and determined that the best way was to have the hilt of the sword down, next to her hand. As she reached the house, she squared her shoulders and stood up straighter.
The house was more or less the way she remembered, but it had a run-down look she didn’t remember. The roof seemed to sag, the windows were boarded up, and the door was broken in. Maddie gingerly pushed open the door and stuck her head in. The room was completely familiar. The roof’s sag wasn’t as pronounced inside and the door seemed to close tightly. Maddie realized she had really only been inside at night or when she was totally exhausted, so she hadn’t noticed the boarded-up windows. She walked through to the backyard.
Everything in the backyard was the same. Except, it was completely empty. Maddie could see the traces of footsteps and the place where she had skidded particularly hard after a blow from Tereus. Other than that, there was no sign that the house had been occupied in years. Only the wear on the yard let her know she wasn’t crazy.
The Temple was the only other place she could think of to find Tereus. She hesitated and really thought about it. The Temple scared her now. The last time she had witnessed a fight between gods. Gods. One of whom was her mother. If she went to the Temple, Tereus might be there. But her mother and Ares certainly would be.
Steeling herself, Maddie took a deep breath before touching the core of shadows inside her. It was ephemeral but strong. She walked over to a large, dark shadow in the corner of the yard and stepped into it.
She stepped out of a shadow in the Temple of All Gods. She had chosen something far away from Ares’s shrine, and Brigantia’s.
She looked around the Temple. There was a group of men standing around the top half of the statue of Gradlon the First. While they seemed absolutely flabbergasted as to how the statue could have been cut so cleanly in two, one of the men was giving orders to get chains and pulleys so the large bronze chunk could be moved away. The huge object was a few feet taller than them, even laying on its side. When Maddie looked at the bottom half of the statue, which still stood, it still seemed to rise up almost to the ceiling.
Maddie pressed herself against the wall, her shadows allowing her almost total invisibility.After watching for a while, she saw that the men were too engrossed in their work to notice a worshiper. She walked quietly toward the altar to Brigantia, hurrying past the altars of Ares and Mars. When she stood in front of the small alcove, she dropped to her knees.
“Mother, what should I do?”
There was no answer. She felt no comforting presence, no arms around her. The statue felt lifeless, as if it had no power. It was just a statue.
Maddie rested her head on the altar. She felt adrift. Her friends, while they hadn’t rejected her, couldn’t be there to support her. She had to implement the plan on her own. And it involved something she wasn’t very good at: lying. After a few minutes she pushed back the misery and stood. With deep breaths she walked to the statue of Ares.
What do you want, child of Brigantia? A male voice boomed in Maddie’s head, making her wince.
“Tereus told me that if I ever needed him, I should go to your shrine.”
And you chose the shrine of Ares, not Mars. You are annoyingly perceptive. I will create a shadow for you that will take you to my son.
Darkness billowed out from the altar and Maddie could feel the presence of a portal. She stepped through. Unlike the other times she had shadow stepped, there was only one option. She walked out of another billow of black smoke.
Tereus was standing there, leaning casually against a pillar. Maddie looked around and saw she was in an opulent house. It was the polar opposite of the ramshackle hut where she had trained. Frescoes adorned the walls, showing scenes of Hercules completing his impossible tasks. Carved marble pillars -- almost certainly decorative -- were interspersed through the room. The floor was a mosaic of the Gorgoneid. Plants overflowed their pots, cascading down walls. The style reminded Maddie slightly of the Academy -- the parts that students weren’t allowed in.
“You found me,” Tereus said as Maddie gaped at the excess, “Much better than that little hovel, right? If I’m going to stay in Ys I’m going to live in luxury. Feel free to look around.”
Maddie walked around the room, inspecting the murals. While the labors of Hercules took up several walls, there were frescoes depicting the Roman gods as well. Mars had a prominent place but Artemis, Zeus, and Poseidon were also depicted.
“So, have you come to kill me?” Tereus asked, jolting Maddie out of her focus.
“K-kill you?” Maddie stammered, “No, I need your help. I want to join you.”
Tereus sauntered over to a chair and indicated that Maddie sit across from him.
“You’re going to have to put that down.” He indicated the sword. “Gently on the ground would be best.”
Maddie cringed inwardly but unstrapped the blade and put it down. She managed to mask her emotions, but she felt less safe without it strapped to her back. She did her best to place the hilt close to her.
“They locked me away!” she sobbed after Tereus had asked for her story. “They wouldn’t let me see my friends! They put me in a room with so many lights that there were no shadows to walk through.”
“Yet you escaped.”
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“One of the aides came in to check on me and I was able to use his shadow before he got completely into the room. It was close.”
“And they let you keep the sword?”
Maddie put on a sheepish look. “Nobody else could lift it. I pretended I couldn’t, either.”
Cleo had correctly predicted Tereus’s questions and Maddie used the answers they had prepared. Her tears came from thinking about the scenes of torture Tereus had shown her and fear of the man himself. Tereus was terrifying and his calm demeanor put Maddie off balance. She couldn’t tell if he believed her or not.
“Well, " he said, leaning forward in his seat, “It was good that you came to me. Those mortals will never understand what it means to have our kind of power. They have underestimated you, to their detriment.”
“They said that my friends were safe, but I don’t know if I believe them.”
Tereus stood and began pacing in front of her. “I wasn’t completely honest with you earlier.”
Maddie’s shock was evident on her face. What lies would he admit to?
“Our organization is more wide-reaching. We call ourselves the Army of Mars. Our purpose is to elevate our kind to positions of power. In short, we want to take over the world.”
“Our kind? The world?”
“Yes. Our kind -- the children of the gods -- are more powerful than mere mortals. We deserve to rule. And we will get our due.”
“But…but how? It’s the world.How are a few demigods going to take over the whole world?”
Tereus chuckled. “A few? Yes, I suppose you would think that. There are hundreds of us, each worth as much as 100,000 regular men. I myself have dozens of half-brothers and -sisters around the globe. And it’s not only my father,” he gestured to the frescoes of other gods, “All the gods have sired or birthed children. Your ‘mother’ has an unknown number of other children.
“You will have to go up against your own siblings, and those of Athena as well. She has been another thorn in my side. At least some of the gods do not take sides.”
Something registered in Maddie’s mind. “You said ‘mother’ in a weird way. What did you mean by that?”
“You know her as Brigantia, but she has been many gods before. Mostly of the dead.”
Maddie tried to remember what she knew of the different gods. There were a lot and she had grown up acknowledging the Celtic gods, not those of Rome and Greece. “Are gods of death evil?”
Tereus chuckled at Maddie’s ignorance and naїveté. He had been doing that after almost every question she asked.
“The gods of the Dead are not necessarily evil. They are more…independent than others. It was quite unexpected that your mother intervened on your behalf.”
Maddie stayed silent for a few moments, working Tereus’s words around in her mind. Her mother was a goddess…god? of death.Did death gods kill people, or did they just help people get to the afterlife? Did they run the afterlife? She again tried to remember her Roman deities. Who was the god of the Afterlife? Were Roman gods like Ankou, who collected the dead and took them to the Afterlife? Or were they like Arawn, who ruled the Underworld? Where did her mother come into it? Brigantia was a goddess of life, not death. Maddie told Terus so.
“Two sides of the same coin.”
If Maddie wasn’t sitting down, she would have had to sit down. Her head spun with all the things Tereus had just said and the implications concerning her mother. Tereus had her completely on the back foot. She struggled to center her mind and bring herself back to her original purpose.
“I…I’m not sure if I trust my mother. She never really helped me, just told me not to trust you. I don’t know why, but it sounds like demigods really should rule.” Part of that was Maddie’s real issues with Brigantia’s actions, but the rest was pure fiction. If all the demigods were like Tereus, then what would be left of the world after they conquered it?
Tereus stroked his chin. “Hmm, that’s true. Your mother usually stays out of my business, but she seems to be particularly protective of you.”
Maddie could see gears turning in his head, so she quickly changed the subject.
“What can I do to help?
“Shadow powers of your caliber are rare, even among the children of Death.” Maddie winced at the name.
“Your magic training helps immensely, but I’ve seen what those Druids have been teaching you; how to access the magic within. Forget that. Magic is about imposing your will upon the universe. You must tell it what to do, not ask it.”
Tereus stood up and motioned for Maddie to join him. They walked out to the central atrium while Tereus continued to insult and refute the Druids’ teachings. He stopped by the peristyle, which was uncharacteristically devoid of gardens.
“This is where we will explore your powers.Where we will hone your will.”
Maddie’s will was not strong, she knew that. If it was she wouldn’t be in her current situation.
“Call shadows to your hand,” Tereus commanded.
Maddie reached inside herself and felt the fuzzy edges of her shadow.
“No!” Tereus thundered, “Use your will. Don’t ask, tell!
Maddie was dumbfounded. This was the only way she knew to access her magic: to look inside herself, and…
…what was her magic? Was it a separate thing tied to her soul? Or was it her?
Tereus was observing her closely and could read the thoughts as they displayed on her face.
“You don’t need to look at your power to use it. That’s for weak-willed fools who must match the resonance,” he practically spit out the word, “With the world at large. Your power is your will. Tell the universe that you want shadows to appear and they will.”
Maddie closed her eyes to concentrate. Tereus peered at her, prepared to scoff or shout when she did it wrong again.
My magic is me. If I can’t look at my magic, maybe I should look at the shadows and ask…no, will…them to do what I want.
She opened her eyes and looked around. There was a shadow in the corner and she told it to stretch and come to her palm. It lengthened toward her until her hand was bathed in shadow.
Tereus snorted, “Close, but no. We know that you can manipulate shadows but you need to command them!”
It took a tremendous effort of will on Maddie’s part to not jump as he thundered the last part. She held out her hand and the shadow snapped back to the corner. She risked a peek at her magic and imagined the same thing covering her hand. She felt something and turned her hand over, palm up. A ball of fuzzy grey shadow appeared above it.
Tereus scoffed and shook his head. “You seem to lack imagination. Very well. Take that,” he said, pointing at the shadow now nestled back in the corner, “and make the same thing form in your hand.”
Maddie glanced at the corner, seeing a wry smile on Tereus’s face. She looked directly at her hand and imagined a ball of black sitting there. She felt something odd, like a breeze blowing across her fingers. Something wanted to be there. It wanted to be a solid black sphere that wisped a little at the edges. She wanted that, too, so she let it happen.
It wasn’t quite what Tereus had told her to do, but the result was the same. She gaped at her work and Tereus smiled. He had taught her his first lesson.