The Captive Titan [ManxMan]

Chapter Ten: Llŷr

[Just to note: Any grammar or spelling errors in the letter are intentional. Anything else, though, is accidental.]

~Chapter Ten: Llŷr~

It is on the eve of the day I sent out the letters that I receive Hades' response. Despite the fact that he had many hours to write it, though, it seems hastily-written and continues some mistakes that, had I not learned Greek for Atlas, I would not have been able to understand it.

-

Ainmire,

Though I had hoped that your respond would be more affirmative, I understand that your king may change his mind at a later date, so I would simply ask that you keep my informed of changes as they happen or ahead of time, if you have been warned. I also approve of your decision to request help from Odin and his ilk, though I find myself doubting whether they will help or not, regardless of your connection to them. Either way, I will factor them into the plan and make sure they will be able to access, even if temporarily, my realm, should you need an extraction.

The plan will go as such:

On the day we are freed of Veles' oath, Zeus will almost certainly call my family to Olympus to discuss our plans for the war since it has kept him from holding war meetings. I will go, as I will be expected to attend, and while I am reasonably 'distracted,' you will meet with someone - I have yet to decide who - that will guide you through Tartarus. It will be up to you to releas them as quickly as possible; you might have, at most, ten minutes after the first Titan is freed. You should be able to teleport out directly, but if the wards seal, you will need to escape Tartarus and teleport from my realm.

For now, I will keep the plan vague, but it will be up to the one who will escort you to fill you on the details. Just be ready on the day the vow ends, and wait until I send you a letter before entering my realm. Until then, you are, as always, welcome in my realm as a guest, and I look forward to our success.

Hades

-

In my letter to him, I had kept my disconnection from my pantheon a secret, as that is still not something I want Hades to be privy to, so I merely said that the Dagda may change his mind if he no longer likes the plan closer to the enactment of it or if circumstances demand alterations. Since the Dagda is - or used to be - very decisive, I am not certain if Hades entirely bought this half-truth, but since he did not call me out on it, I will have to assume that it was not obvious enough for him to start questioning my desire to see this through.

At the very least, he seems to want to see me see this through.

Still, I am not sure I trust him. Even with both Cronus and Rhea backing up the decision to trust Hades, the fact that Cronus originally had to ask his wife her thoughts on Hades' trustworthiness is concerning. After all, Cronus would only have asked if he was concerned that personal bias may be impairing his decision-making skills, and Rhea has already shown that she is biased towards her children, as she originally protected Zeus - albeit hesitantly and more out of motherly love than believing that her youngest was correct in his goals - during the Titanomachy. So, if Cronus, fearing bias, went to his biased wife, it makes me a bit skeptical of how biased their decision might be.

Especially since Atlas happens to still be on the fence.

Still, I have no intention of backing out now. I just...I just have to make sure the Dagda is not going to do that for me.

- - - - - - -

It is three days later that someone arrives with a letter from the Dagda, which is both earlier and later than I was expecting. Depending on how he reacted, I thought he would either immediately send someone or think about it for a few days and perhaps wait to contact my uncle in Faerie, which runs on different time, or Annwn, though it would be hard to contact him there than Faerie. So, when no one arrived on the first day, I was bracing for someone to arrive on the fourth or fifth day. Yet, it is noon of the third day when Ullr arrives to inform me that Odin is calling for me because someone has arrived for me.