The Flames of Hope Ch 10

Chapter 10~A Look at the Future
“We would like to know where are friends from Camp Half-Blood are being held,” I said. “If you could please tell us, we’d be out of your hair in no time.”

“And why should I tell you? What’s in it for me?” he asked as he raised an eyebrow.

“We’ll give you this,” Will said as he raised the Happy Meal up. It caused Teiresias’ eyes to light up as he looked at it intensely.

“Back in my day, heroes would bribe us for information with blood. I miss those old days, but times change,” he said and he took the bad. He began eating the food and when he reached in for more, he only found a few fries and a tiny windup toy.

“So will you help us?” Megan asked him.

“I guess I can tell you where Leiomenos has your friends,” he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “In fact, this is a good time to find them.”

“Why is that?” Megan asked, most likely wondering why the timing had anything to do with rescuing our friends.

“Oh, you may not know this as you are new in the Underworld, but there is a battle going on right now,” he said. He pushed his chair back and tried to open the blind to his office, which took a few tries. As it opened, I looked out the window and saw the Underworld. It didn’t look that different except far off in the distance I saw a column of black Hellfire intertwined with one of Greek fire. At the same time, the dead seemed restless as the souls ran from the battle.

“What is going on over there?” I shouted. He pulled the blind back down and turned around in his chair to face us.

“Leiomenos arrived in the Underworld earlier today. It seems he is so confident in his abilities that he has started trying to take down the Big Three themselves, not to mention Prometheus has been giving him advice on who to counter each gods abilities. He also made some powerful allies when climbing his way out of Tartarus, including the Earthborn,” he said.

“I knew it wasn’t just a coincidence,” I said out loud and Teiresias nodded in agreement.

“Shortly, the Big Three will fail, the first being Hades of course, as he will save Zeus for last. Hades will fall in a matter of days and Poseidon shortly after. Pretty soon all that will be left is Zeus. There are a few other gods that have evaded capture, but they will prove to be of no consequence. I have seen this, it is going to happen. Thankfully, that gives you at least a week to find your friends and set them free,” he explained as calmly as if he were playing a game of solitaire. I guess being able to see the future will do that to you.

“So where are they,” I said, with urgency in my voice. If we only had a few days, time was important.

“That is a bit harder to explain. It isn’t exactly a physical place,” he began. “Much like how Olympus is over the Empire State Building, yet it does not fully exist in this realm of reality. You’re friends are in that realm of reality, broken off from this world, but still a part of it.”

“How do we get there?” Megan asked.

“Much like how the Empire State Building acts as an anchor for Olympus, Leiomenos own place has an anchor to the real world as well. The only person that knows where it is is Atlas. I can't promise he will help you, but he does know,” he said. “That is all I am willing to tell you, good luck.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know if we win, would you?” I asked hopefully.

“Can’t say; I can see the future, but not every event has a definite answer. I mean imagine if that Jackson kid had stayed with Calypso, everything would have changed. However, the things that wouldn’t have changed I can see, like the choice to give him the knife.”

“I see. Well, thank you for your help,” I said and we shook hands before heading out.

“Don’t slam the…” he began as Will slammed the door shut on accident. “…door,” he said from in his office and we just kept walking. As we walked back into the waiting area, we saw the guy with the swordfish holding a much larger scroll with an even bigger number on it. I felt kind of bad for him, but we continued on into the hallway back to the land of the living. We reached the end of the hall and knocked on the door three times, causing the wall to push out and slide like the brick had done when we first entered.

“Hey, all made it back alive,” Sammy said. I gave him a look that made him rephrase his statement. “I mean of course you made it back alive. I just meant that you aren’t dead…you know what. I’m just going to shut up now.”

“So how was the Underworld?” Gear asked, looking at us.

“It wasn’t all that bad. We were basically treated like royalty,” I said as I patted Will on the shoulder. “Oh, and I know where our next stop is. We are off to Mount Tamalpais, we have a meeting with Atlas.”

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive