© 2018 by Danelle Dreyer. All rights received.
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Prologue
It was typical Tuesday afternoon and the young gods and goddesses were trying their hardest to keep up with what Asclepius was trying to explain to them.
The young heir to Apollo's throne and future emperor of the lands was having a slightly rough time conveying the design of his new invention.
"Okay." He clapped his hands once and tried very hard not to sigh in frustration. Sometimes he wondered how they all passed their classes together. "Let's try this again..."
"Oh, someone save me." Narray mumbled as she leaned back against the large oak table and crossed her arms over her chest.
"This-" Asclepius extended his arms to the back and gestured to his newly built device. "-is a kinetic energy converter. As you can guess, it converts kinetic energy."
"Yes, we got that part." Claudeus sighed and rubbed his forehead. "What we're struggling with is why."
"Hold on, you two dorks might understand that part, but the rest of us are slightly cloudy on the subject." Casseus interjected and pointed with his thumb to the rest of the gang all waiting for something interesting to come out of this whole experience.
Beside Casseus stood his older sister, Theia, and the god of ghosts, Malreus. Beside Malreus, stood his cousins, Triton and Rhode- the son and daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite. And on the other side, next to his twin brother Claudeus, stood their other cousin, Morpheus- the eldest child of Hypnos and Trita.
"Kinetic energy is energy created through movement and motion." Asclepius muttered with a whiny voice; trying his hardest to irritate Casseus as much as he currently felt. "Now can I get to the good stuff?"
"There's a good part to this?" Malreus leaned closer to Theia and whispered it in a dry tone. The young goddess tried her hardest not to giggle, but a bit of laughter escaped. She was silenced by Asclepius' glower.
"So what I've created- which is rather ingenuous, if I may say so myself- is a device that can collect, so to speak, kinetic energy, store it and then transfer it into another form of energy."
"Don't you we have magic for that?" Rhode piped in from the side, her big blue eyes inquisitive. She was the quiet one, but definitely curious whenever Asclepius had a new invention to explain.
Asclepius sighed and looked up to the heavens for help. "Let me finish."
Rhode pulled a face and her older brother, Triton, chuckled at her expense. She gave him the stink-eye, while he chewed on his apricot.
"It transfers this energy into a shield of sorts and then allows the shielded person to use the energy as makeshift body armour!" Asclepius waited for the applause.
None came. He turned around with his hands on his hips and found the others looking at him with wide eyes.
He rubbed his platinum blond hair to the side. "What now?"
"I... don't follow." Theia spoke up for all of them.
Asclepius gritted his teeth; "I'm not surprised."
"Perhaps a demonstration is in order?" Casseus smirked and knew something was bound to go wrong.
Claudeus, who was by far the only other young god clever and intelligent enough to truly understand Asclepius' whirlwind of a mind, shrugged and slanted his eyes with indifference; "I see no point to this... thing."
"You wound me, cousin." Asclepius glared at Claudeus and lifted a finger in the air with determination, his other hand still on his hip. "I need a volunteer. Morpheus?" Asclepius looked to his other cousin, but the young god lifted a nervous eyebrow.
"Uh... I'll pass." The god of dreams and prophecies smiled tightly and scooted closer to the door, in case anything went wrong. And things usually went wrong when Asclepius hadn't tested out his designs first.
"I'll do it." Triton said with his mouth full of fruit and pushed the pip into his cousin's hand. Malreus pulled a disgusted face and rolled his eyes.
"Excellent." Asclepius rubbed his hands like an evil genius would. To be fair, he wasn't all that far from one. "Prepare to be amazed!"
Beside the chamber where the children were preparing their experiment, a council meeting was taking place.
Apollo sighed- a trait he'd clearly passed on to his own son. "I do not care about what the wood nymphs want- those forest are invested with sprites. I need them cleared out."
"Yes, but it's not that easy." His royal advisor said. Aurora elegantly placed her one leg over the other and leaned back in her high-backed chair. They were all seated around the large, round, golden table.
The council consisted of the emperor's closest and most trusted advisors and fellow rulers.
A lot had changed over the many years. Apollo was now called the emperor, and his lands were divided into different empires, all run by their own kings. Apollo still had domain and supreme rule over the capital- Olympus.
Hades and Thanatos shared the vast Underworld as two kings. Thanatos was the king of the Northern empire and Hades the king of the Southern empire.
Poseidon remained the king of Atlantis and the oceans. All the kings were still under Apollo's governance, but they had more freedom in their own lands than before the change in the ruling structure.
Apollo's council members remained mostly the same throughout the thousands of years. To his right, sat his royal advisor and the queen of the Northern empire, Aurora. To his left, his army general and the king of the Northern Underworld, Thanatos.
Beside Thanatos, was Hades- the king in the South of the Underworld and across from Hades, was Hemera, the emperor's queen.
Next to Hemera, sat her brother, Hypnos- the chief of Justice- and across from him, was Poseidon, the king of the ocean empire.
Over the years, Apollo had removed his twin, Artemis from the council and replaced her with his queen. It was only fitting, and at first his sister had been rather hurt by the unexpected change, but she quickly came to understand his reasoning. Besides, there wasn't much she could do about it anyway.
"And why not?" Apollo asked the table. "Thanatos, send a squad of reapers to clear out those pests."
"My reapers are not exterminators." Thanatos grumbled and stroked a hand over his rough, black beard. "Besides, Barrios will have a fit."
"Well then any suggestions?" Apollo explained and asked the round table.
"What about Artemis and her followers?" Hemera posed; "I'm sure she'd love to help and she did need an initiation event for her new members."
Apollo nodded; "Yes, that could work. Will you speak with her, dear?"
Hemera nodded and smiled, happy to have been of help.
"Good, I'll draw up a report and-" Aurora stopped mid-sentence when a loud clank echoed through the great hall.
The older gods turned their head towards the wall behind Hades, Poseidon and Thanatos and stared at it in silent shock.
"What in the hell was that?" Poseidon asked with wide eyes and stood up from his seat.
The others followed suit; Hades being the last to make the effort.
"It sounded like... an explosion?" Hypnos said softly and looked to Hemera. She shrugged and eyed the wall. "Should we go and check-"
BOOM!
A sudden deafening blow to the wall sent the entire structure down as a hole was blown open at the thick centre. The entire council room was covered in pieces of broken brick, layers of thick dust and splintered wood. The older gods had ducked just in time and the chamber died down in silence, but not for long.
"What in the gods!" The emperor yelled over the mess of debris everywhere and jumped up from under the table.
All the gods shot up, their concealed weapons ready in their hands and glistening with the lust for blood.
But much to their surprise, instead of a hoard of monsters looking back at them, they only saw the shocked and stunned faces of their own children.
Asclepius stood in the other room, open-mouthed and dreadfully pale, while the rest of the gang all hung their faces over the side of the wall, leaning in to see the ruined council room.
In all the silence of what had just happened, only Rhode's deep gasp could be heard as she covered her mouth and ducked her head away to scurry off like a mouse. She abandoned the plot and ran- her mother was going to kill her.
"Whoo!" A loud laugh boomed up from the centre of the council floor, right beside the broken down wall. Triton had no idea what had just happened- his body coursing with adrenaline. "That was insane! I loved it!"
He laughed as he looked at the stunned faces of his fellow friends and cousins, thinking that their fear was simply because he'd broken through a wall with the blast of energy from Asclepius' device, but when he turned his head, his broad smile vanished instantly.
The older gods were looking down at him with deadly glares.
"Oh. Shit."
"You are in so much trouble." Poseidon hissed at his son and crossed his arms over his broad chest.
The rest of the kids scattered like mice- following Rhode's cowardly tactic.
All but one.
Theia hadn't gotten the memo and stayed put until she realised that she was the only one still left- other than Triton, who was still rubbing his head, while seated on the messy floor.
Her eyes widened when her father and mother turned their glares at her.
"Theia..." Thanatos grumbled like a lion and his daughter chuckled sheepishly and twirled her thumbs around nervously.
Why was it that she was always the one who had to take the fall when things went south? Dammit! Theia scolded herself and awkwardly asked; "So... How's the meeting going?"
Unfortunately for her, no one found it very amusing.
Welcome to book 5!
I hope you're all as excited as I am for the next chapter in the Dawn series!
How do you all like my new border for this book? It's very different from any of the others I've made and you'll soon see that this book is a little bit more humorous than the others too- I'm sticking with the 'light' theme, after all...
What do you all think of the characters thus far? If you're a little confused by the new faces, check the next chapter for some helpful edits.
Love, D xx