Athena and I headed out of the dorm to go to our respective classes the next morning. Before we went out, we both agreed to meet at the library after class hours to play a last round of chess to conclude her very-short-but-still-okay strategy training.
I got through my classes smoothly and was finally able to catch up with the current lessons that we're having. I had some of my subjects with Pierre and we also ate lunch together. Unlike our last conversation where he accused me of not wanting to hang out with him anymore, he was more relaxed and cheerful while we were talking to each other.
Soon enough, I was done with the last of my classes. Going out of the classroom, I headed to the library where I'll meet with Athena for the game. I haven't gone far from the class when I felt Pierre sneaking up to me.
I turned to my friend. "Hi!"
"Hey, Amelia!" he greeted. "Where are you going?"
"Well, I'm going to the library," I replied. "I'll have to meet with Athena to play chess against her."
"Chess? That sounds interesting," he said. "Can I come with you and watch you two play?"
I blinked. "Uh. . . I don't know, Pierre. Athena's not much of a people person. She also doesn't like anyone else watching her play."
"Please? I promise I won't bother you two," he said. "I'll just sit in another table. You won't notice that I'm even watching."
After a few moments of thinking, I sighed. "Fine, but I can't guarantee that Athena will allow you to watch us, okay?"
"Yeah, I got it." He grinned, then he broke into a sprint. "I'll race you! The loser will treat the other in the dining hall later!"
His action made some of the students in the hallway look at him and then at me.
"Wha— Pierre! Wait for me!" I chuckled, shaking my head.
Ignoring the people's stares, I ran to catch up with him, determined to win his race.
Unfortunately, Pierre got to the library first, so that means I had to treat him later after the chess game, which I didn't really mind.
The two of us made our way to the far end of the library where Athena and I played chess yesterday. From there, Athena sat on the same chair of the same table reading the same book. There was already a chessboard in front of her with the pieces arranged. Like yesterday, Athena chose the black pieces so that left me with the white ones. Again.
Why do I feel that she wants me to lose by her strategy of 'Amelia goes first so I can predict her pathetic moves'?
"Hey, Athena!" I said to get her attention.
Athena looked up from her book. "Oh, you're finally here." She looked at Pierre, who was just standing beside me. "Who's this?"
"He's Pierre, a friend of mine." I gestured at him.
She narrowed her eyes. "Okay, whatever. What's he doing here? Remember what I said about no one watching us play?"
Pierre coughed. "Well, I'm just here to see Amelia play. I won't disturb you two, don't worry."
"Yeah, he'll just sit at another table," I added.
Athena rolled her eyes. "Fine, then. I just want to get this over with."
I turned to Pierre and motioned him to sit at a nearby table. After he got settled, I headed to Athena's table and sat across from her.
"Are you ready?" Athena asked me.
I shrugged. "I don't know, to be honest. You sure calling my training off early is a good idea?"
"Yes, I'm definitely sure," she replied. "I feel that it's just for the best."
Without any further ado, I picked up the pawn in front of the king and moved it two spaces. Athena moved the pawn which was in front of the knight on my left-hand side two spaces too. I then moved the bishop near my king all the way to A5, taking Athena's pawn off the board.
"Yes!" I whispered to myself, feeling proud of my move.
Despite that, Athena seemed unfazed by her loss. She moved the pawn in front of the Bishop near her queen by one step. I easily stole the pawn with my charging bishop. As soon as her second pawn was gone, she moved her knight and took my bishop.
Okay. . . I just lost one of my bishops, so what? Athena lost two pawns which was worse in my opinion.
I then picked up my pawn which was in front of my queen and moved it two spaces. Athena moved her knight from D4 where one of my pawns was and stole it. I moved my knight from my right to H3. Athena moves the pawn in front of her queen two squares front or in D5. In return, I moved one of my pawns from E4 to D5, taking Athena's pawn.
Athena takes her knight from D4 to E2, which was just in front of my king. Seeing the opportunity, I steal the knight by moving my queen to its position.
Ha! Take that, Athena!
Just like before, Athena kept her poker face intact, making me baffled all of a sudden. I wish I could see what she was thinking, but I knew that would be cheating. Plus, I think I won't be able to penetrate her mind as she is smarter than to let me peek easily.
She quickly took her bishop from C8 to A6. I then moved my knight from H3 to F4. And, slowly but surely, Athena slides her bishop all the way to my queen. My shoulders slumped as she took my queen off the board, grinning like a maniac.
"Nooo! Give me my queen back!" I wailed. "It's over! I'll lose the game without her!"
I heard someone chuckle behind me, who was probably Pierre, but I ignored him.
Athena began fiddling with my white queen. "Don't act like a child, Amelia. Depending on the queen to win is a terrible strategy. I learned it the hard way."
A phone began ringing nearby. Athena took her phone from her pocket and looked at the caller. Her eyebrows wrinkled.
"I'll have to take this. Excuse me."
She went up to a corner to answer the phone. Meanwhile, I stared at the board with my eyes focused on what Athena could possibly do next.
Okay. . . So even if she took my queen out, I'll just use my king to take her bishop. Yes. . . I will do that. And then. . .
It didn't take long until Athena came back to the table. For some reason, her forehead was creased and her lips were pressed into a thin line.
"Who called you?" I asked. "Is there something wrong?"
"It's my brothers," she said quietly. "They got the signal."
"Huh? What signal?"
"They got a clue for the next Artifact," she said. "We have to go. Now."
Making up an excuse to Pierre about a very important matter that I had to attend to, Athena and I left for the Principal's Office to meet with Zeus and Poseidon.
We entered the centermost, two-storey building of the campus. Inside, Greek tapestries, marble benches, Minoan vases and other antiquities decorated the place, making it look like a museum. Ms. Alyana, Rhea's secretary, sat behind a marble front desk. She was typing on her computer and didn't bother to look up when we entered.
Before I could speak up to announce our presence, Athena pulled me towards the elevator and pushed the lowest button, closing the doors in front of us.
"Wait, there's another floor in the building?" I asked. "Is that the basement or something?"
"You'll see," she said.
A small screen suddenly appeared in place of the button and Athena placed her thumb on it. A flash of light began scanning before a small beep sounded in the elevator. The doors opened and Athena stepped out while I stood there, gaping at the strange place in front of me.
The basement which I thought was filled with stacks of files and other important documents turned out to be the opposite. Instead, swords, spears, bows and other weapons were arranged and displayed on two of the walls while screens of different sizes along with gadgets that I couldn't name were on the opposite side. A wide table stood at the center where Zeus and Poseidon hovered at something.
Poseidon looked up. "You're finally here. Alright, let's get to business."
I snapped out of my reverie and stepped out of the elevator. "What is this place?"
"Welcome to Olympus HQ, Amelia." Zeus grinned. "Our underground base for covert operations."
"Wow. . . This looks amazing!" I said in awe. "Why didn't you tell me you had a secret base before? I'm really missing out!"
"Well, we thought to surprise you when you were finally done with your training with us," Poseidon answered. "But that won't be possible now that an Artifact suddenly popped up in our radar."
"Although, like always, we can only detect the energy signature from the Item, but we won't be able to pinpoint where it's coming from." Zeus sighed as he gestured at the screens behind them.
"Why did it appear this early?" Athena wondered. "It's supposed to do that a week or two from now as I calculated."
Zeus shrugged. "We don't have an idea, sis, but we can only hope that we get to it before the Rogues do."
Seeing them talk to each other so seriously made me feel out of place. As much as I wanted to join in, I had no idea of what I would even say or do. I just stood there and tried to catch up with their continuous discussion.
". . . so we've got a plan," Athena was saying. "Anyway, where's Mother?"
"In her office," Zeus said. "She had to look up her sources to see why the Artifact, whatever it is, appeared all of a sudden."
Athena scoffed. "Yeah, right. She's just too busy to assist us, her children. Like always."
Poseidon gave her a pointed look. "You know how managing the school has kept her occupied. She already helped us by providing us with resources. Besides, she told me she'll join us in a while."
"Whatever you say, brother."
Glancing around, I noticed that Aegis, Athena's shield, was among the weapons that hung on the walls. Its bronze curvature gleamed and the beheaded figure of Medusa stared at me menacingly.
Drawn by its strange allure, I slowly reached for its red eyes. As soon as my fingers brushed the surface, a string of images began to flash in my head. I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing as it only happened for a brief moment, but I saw a very beautiful woman in most of them.
"Amelia? Are you okay?"
I turned around to see the Olympian siblings looking at me in concern.
"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked.
"You looked frozen like stone when you were standing in front of Aegis," Zeus said. "Is there something wrong?"
"No, it's nothing." I shook my head, then glanced at the object that they were looking at earlier. "What's that, by the way?"
"Well, it's basically a magical scroll," Poseidon said. "We use it to know the location of the Artifacts and sometimes it tells us what the Item looks like."
"But we'll have to translate the clues in Latin just to know what it says," Zeus added, waving the torn scroll.
Athena snatched the paper from him. "Which is why I'm here, stupid. I already know Latin so none of you need to worry about translating it yourselves."
She cleared her throat before reading the scroll aloud:
"Mighty and grand, this object was
Its lame owner shunned, a faux pas
He who used his cleverness for revenge
From his mater who cast him off the edge.
This Artifact that you seek
Stands atop a high torpid peak
That razed a great Roman city below
A tragedy of death and inferno."
As soon as she was done, Athena folded the paper up and placed it on the table.
Zeus groaned. "Why do the clues have to be in riddles every single time? It's annoying."
"Hm. . . So I guess whoever the owner of this Artifact looked ugly since he was mentioned as 'lame' and a 'faux pas' in the second line of the first stanza," Poseidon paused. "What does 'mater' mean?"
"It's an informal Latin word for mother. You can hear it in terms such as 'alma mater'," Athena said. "That means he was so ugly that his own mother abandoned him."
"That's dark," Zeus commented. "Who would do something like that?"
"Hera did," I said. "And she did that to her son Hephaestus by throwing him off Mount Olympus."
"Correct." Athena nodded. "Hephaestus eventually got revenge by gifting her a new throne that was obviously a trap."
"Okay. Now we know who owns the thing," Zeus said. "But where do we find the thing?"
"'Atop a high torpid peak', that's where," Poseidon said. "It means it's above a mountain."
"But which one? There's a lot of mountains in the world!"
Athena rolled her eyes. "The scroll said that it destroyed a Roman city and that it was 'a tragedy of death and inferno'."
Zeus clasped his hands. "Alright, so the disaster occurred in a city—"
"A Roman one," I supplied.
"—which was near a mountain and killed a lot of people." Zeus furrowed his brows. "Very helpful. We still don't know where the Artifact is, and we're running out of time."
"Inferno, inferno. . . Do you guys think a fire started in that city and killed the people?" I asked, hesitant. "Or something else did?"
"Something else. . ." Athena snapped her fingers. "That's it! Amelia, you're a genius!"
I blinked. "I-I am?"
"Yes! Why didn't I noticed it earlier?" she exclaimed. "'This Artifact that you seek, stands atop a high torpid peak'. Poseidon was right about the Item being in a mountain, but we missed that tiny word there in the stanzas. It's the word 'torpid', which means inactive."
"Okay. . . But what are you trying to say, sis?" Zeus asked.
"I'm saying that the mountain is not just any mountain," she said. "It's a volcano, and a dormant one at that."
I nodded slowly, finally getting what she meant. "So the volcano killed the people of the city because of an eruption that it caused?"
"Yes, yes! One huge eruption!" Athena said, her eyes sparkling, which was weird considering that a volcanic eruption wasn't good. "There's only one famous Roman city that was burned down to the ground by a volcano."
"The ancient city of Pompeii," Poseidon said.
My eyes widened. "Mount Vesuvius."
"Spot on!" Athena grinned. "Pack your bags, everyone. We're heading to Italy!"
* * *
A/N: While writing the chess game scene, I thought most of y'all wouldn't be able to imagine the chess pieces and their positions like me. I figured I make this GIF below of the short game Athena and Amelia had just for reference! Though you can always skip that scene if you're too bored of reading chess (like me, again).
If you enjoyed the chapter, please support me by smacking that vote button and/or commenting about the stuff you love/hate about my book! Constructive criticisms are much appreciated!