The Oracle of Tartarus [malexmale]

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

I managed to bring food into Noe's room that morning from the kitchen.

While it was difficult to convince the servants that Noe was simply too sick to leave his room, the servants insisted making Noe a big, healthy meal and offering their prayers in hopes that he got better. There a was mild state of guilt as I watched them rush around the kitchen to get Noe's meal ready, but I knew it had to be this way.

No one could find out about Noe becoming an oracle.

The servants piled food onto a cart and I took it to Noe's room, making certain that none of the servants had gotten curious and followed me. I approached Noe's bedroom door, knocking a couple times before entering to see Noe wide awake, sitting with my laptop in his lap. He looked up and smiled, melting my heart in an instant.

I knew he was probably having difficulties adjusting. His wings tended to get in the way and they also took on a mind of their on occasion and would open wide before folding back up. He currently sat on the bed, typing away before he closed the laptop and set it aside. I wheeled the cart in and shut the door behind me, locking it. I brought the cart over and set up the tray on the bed before setting out the food. Noe watched, his cheeks flushing pink.

"You don't need to do everything for me." He pointed out quietly, watching me take out the silverware from a can on the cart. I shook my head as I pushed the cart away and sat on the bed, on the other side of the tray so I was looking at him.

"It doesn't bother me, Noe. In fact, I enjoy taking care of you." I answered. Noe stared at me for the longest time, eyes searching my face as if to find a lie before he admitted defeat and started to eat slowly, carefully so that his new fangs didn't cut his lips. He took small, dainty bites and sips of water. I wanted to just sit there and watch him, but I could do plenty of that after we solved the problem at hand.

"Did you find anything out?" I asked Noe casually. I wasn't going to tell him that I read his chat with Abel. It was obviously private, and I still felt guilty for having read it. There were also some bits and pieces that I wanted to question him about, but I had to work around them so as not to let Noe know that I read the conversation.

"Not really," Noe sighed, picking up a piece of steak between his fingers and ripping a piece off, "Abel just said he stopped to try and sober me up, but it didn't work too well. It was usually the same kind of night up until the drinking game, but that was the only oddity." I frowned, making plans to visit Styx right after the meeting this afternoon. I couldn't alert Noe that I knew. But I also couldn't ignore what I'd learned either.

"I see," I answered carefully, "And that's all that happened? You're positive there's nothing else to mention? Who poured your drinks?" Noe frowned at that, licking food off his lips as he averted his eyes.

"Pretty sure Hannibal poured 'em, but he drank from the same bottle I did." He pointed out. I let that sink, but no matter how I tried to some up with an excuse for why Hannibal would do it, I couldn't pin the blame on him. While he certainly had a motive for wanting to hurt Noe, I'm sure he wouldn't go to this extent-- and Hannibal's loyalty to Cain was borderline obscene.

I'd also heard that Hannibal was raised by a Titan when he was a child, but the experience wasn't one that Hannibal enjoyed discussing. In fact, Hannibal was never personal with anyone, not even Cain from what he's said. Hannibal was too serious about his job.

"All right," I said at last, watching Noe glance up as I searched the tray of food, picking up a couple pieces of fruit with a fork, "Well, we'll discuss that more later. Right now, we need to worry about the matter at hand and that's the fact that in just a couple hours, there's going to be a meeting at Malachi's to discuss the progress with the Titans." Noe paled.