The Demigod Revolution

XXVI : Another Possibility

"I have a theory." Percy said. "And I need to consult with you about this, if you may."

Athena and Carter was there with him at the beach, where they could talk in private. Percy knew the godly aura from the goddess would be strong enough to make anyone notice, but for now this will have to do.

"Go on." Athena said.

"So, you said that you often exchange notes with Thoth, right?"

"You mean, the Egyptian God of Wisdom?" Athena raised an eyebrow. "We've talked from time to time. We spent centuries exchanging notes."

Percy shook his head to wave off unnecessary info. "So you have interacted with him?"

Athena nodded. "Thoth is a very good deity of wisdom."

"Has he ever mentioned a book?" Percy asked.

"We're wisdom deities." Athena said. "Of course there's books."

Percy shook his head. "No, I mean a very special book. The Book of Thoth. Have you heard of it?"

From Athena's expression, it looks like she doesn't know of its existence. "I haven't heard of such book." Athena said.

"I'll explain." Carter said. Carter proceeds to enlighten the two literal goddesses in front of him. The Book of Thoth was a field study that was made by Thoth, the Egyptian God of Wisdom. When he was younger, Thoth was obsessed with gathering information. That's why he wrote the book. It contains all the spells in existence, information about gods, location of the gods' palaces, and where their sheut is, and how to summon the gods and their sheuts.

"Did you just swear?" Percy asked.

"No." Carter said. "Sheut is like a person's shadow. In Egyptian myth, it's the imprint you leave in the world. It represents one-fifth of a person's soul. So if a person has no shadow, they basically don't exist in the world."

"And everything has this . . . sheut?" Athena asked.

"Well, everything Egyptian has them. I don't know about the Greek pantheon." Carter said. "It's bad omen to talk about it because the sheut is like a backup copy of a person's soul. Just in case you got sent into oblivion by mistake."

Percy gulped. That's like one of the scariest way to go. You get sent into oblivion just because your brother took a cookie out of the cookie jar and blamed it on you.

"The information contained in there is dangerous, and it has become even more so since Setne stole it."

"The Elvis dude." Percy said. "We fought him a few years ago when he tried mixing Egyptian and Greek magic."

Carter nodded. "Setne was the most powerful magician in the history of Ancient Egypt. He's the only one who had managed to steal the Book of Thoth from under Thoth himself. With it, he created many spells." Carter looked tense. "This includes how to completely destroy a god."

"That's nonsense." Athena scowled. "I don't care which pantheon you come from, gods are eternal and immortal."

"Well, Setne did it." Carter said. "He had plans of blackmailing the gods and turning into an immortal himself. This normally wouldn't be possible, but the Book of Thoth had enough information. Luckily, he's imprisoned right now so we don't have to worry about him."

There was a look of relief on Athena's face. "So, what? There's a powerful book out there that contains all the secrets in Egypt. How does this matter?"

"The Book of Thoth contains the secrets of the universe." Percy said. This time, it was his turn to explain. "You said it yourself. You've met him and exchanged information with him a lot. It's not a stretch to say that there's at least some bits of wisdom in there that concerns us. The Greek pantheon."