Deus Humana: Ch. 3

Chapter 3: I Read My Own Prophechy (Typhus Ω)
When Jessica kicked down the doors of the Council Hall, I knew she was pissed off- majorly. Covered in sweat, blood, and what smelled like chicken grease, Jessica stood in the doorway, her face red and her bow held in her hand tight.

"Blake!!!" she screeched towards the back of the room, spit and noise flying out of her mouth like bullets. "What the HELL is wrong with you?!"

Blake looked up from his stake of reconnisance reports, eyeballing Jessica in all her chicken covered greasieness. "Excuse me?"

"An important mission? Something we needed to collect?! We almost died you rotten son of a-"

"Jessica! Calm down!"

I looked up towards the familiar voice of my twin sister, Raven. Stepping out from behind the huntress, Raven revealed herself. She too was covered in blood, sweat, and various chicken juices. Her hair was matted and plastered to her neck, her eyes bloodshot and watery. In her hand she carried a giant stone gauntlet, shaped like a fist. Greek runes were etched into the stone finger tips and palm. When I looked at the runes, I felt something strange inside my gut...as if the runes were alive, possibly even talking to me.

I shook my head as Raven began to speak. Her lip trembled in nearvousness at first, but soon she regained her normal posture, speaking fluidly.

"What Jessica was trying to say was that you sent us into a trap..." she said, biting her lip nearvously.

"Beg your pardon?" Blake said, furrowing his brow and standing up. In one black blur he was standing infront of the girls, eye level with Jessica. "Are you accusing me of-?"

Raven interrupted him, something she knew perfectly well not to do. "-no...We're just saying that we were ambushed. The storage house you sent us to was filled with um...chicken nuggets."

The other councilers in the room laughed, the chuckels echoing off the Council Room's walls.

"Chicken nuggets?" one of them said.

"What an imagniation this girl has..." another giggled.

Jessica frowned, obviously still pissed off. Her face red, she stepped inbetween Raven and Blake. "What Raven meant," she said, "is that we were ambushed by a pair of demon...well, chicken nuggets- shut up, Cole! Anyway...no matter what they were, we were almost killed tonight. Care to explain?"

Blake sighed, rubbing his temples, and then he began to laugh. "You truly think I would want you dead? Why would I want such a beautiful face wiped from this earth?" Blake smiled, reaveling his glistening white teeth. He raised a single, callused hand to Jessica's flawless cheek, stroking it a little.

I winced in frustration. Blake had always been better looking than me- him being older and all. But ever since I could remember, Jessica had always payed attention to me more...for some reason she appreciated my attitude and fighting prowess. Over time I had developed feelings for her, though I knew she would never return them the same way...

Nonetheless...to see this kid hitting on her...touching her like that...

My heart slowed down as she pushed away from him, scrunching her nose up in disgust. "Don't touch me," she scowled, stepping back from him.

In my mind the only thing I could think was, That's the Jessica I know...

Blake frowned, rolling his eyes. "Lighten up, chica. I was only joking." Suddenly Blake's eyes darted from Jessica's to the large, stone fist in my sister's hand.

"What is that?" he said, pointing a shaking finger to the relic.

"What, this?" Raven asked, holding it up with surprising strength.

"Of course that. Give me that!" Blake snapped his wrist out, snatching the fist away from sister with such force, I almost felt compelled to spring from my chair and knock him to the ground.

Flexing his left hand, Blake slowly slid it into the fist and the hand came to life. Suddenly a large golden ball of flame swirled to knife in the center of its palm. A tiny, flickering flame ignited on each finger, representing four different colors- blue, red, white, and green.

My eyes widened at the site, and some of the councilers close to me gasped. Finally, someone had the courage enough to break the silence.

"Holy crap...is that...?" Cole Ryan said, staring wide eye at the flaming fist.

Blake nodded, a massive Grinch-like grin having spread across his face. "Yes it is, Ryan. This...is the Hand of Hades."

Everyone stared, oohing and awing at the hand.

"What's the Hand of Hades?" I asked.

And then room burst into laughter.

"He doesn't know what the Hand is?" one person chuckeled.

"What a noob!" another laughed, wiping a tear from their eye.

"If he doesn't know the hand...imagine what else he doesn't know!" a girl giggled.

"Silence!" Blake hollered, and the laughter ceased. He gave a sweet- yet sarcastic- smile to me. "It is quite alright if Typhus knows not of the Hand. That is what we have the Book for..."

"Tell me knows about the book," a daughter of Pluto hissed to her boyfriend, giggling slightly.

"Bring out the Book!" Blake said, snapping his fingers.

Suddenly a large, black column of smoke erupted out of the council table. When it cleared, a massive, leather bound book sat in the center of the wooden table. A large, silver skull rested in the center of the black, leather cover, and a matching silver lock was wrapped around it.

The Book of the Dead, I said in my mind. What's the Book of the Dead, you might ask? No, not that silly piece of parchment from ancient Egypt...oh, something entirley different.

The Book of the Dead...Hades's/Pluto's personal archive of secrets. Accessible only by a son or daughter of the death god, The Book of the Dead contained secrets not even the Zeus himself knew. Enchanted by the Lord of the Underworld himself, the Book wrote in itself whenever a new piece of information was added, or something in history was concieved. Too us demigod children of death? The Book could be accessed any time, any place, with just the snap of a finger and the mutter of a special incantation in our mind.

Blake, feeling special and mighty today, pointed his right, bare hand at the book and the lock deactivated. I could hear the pins and gears clicking back and forth as the lock unlocked itself, falling limply to the side as the book opened itself.

Bending to the reader's will, (in this case Blake's) the book opened up to the Hand of Hades's page. A perfect, white ink drawn picture was etched into the black parchment page, a spitting resemblence of the relic now on Blake's hand.

"Serena," Blake began. adressing one of the senior councilers.. "Please read to our friend."

Serena- a blonde haired girl from Britain- nodded, pulling the book close to her. Serena's accent was thick, and somewhat hard to understand, but I managed to make out most of what she said.

"The Hand of Hades is an ancient artifact, or relic, that was crafted during the Gigantoamchy. Forged by Hades's personal Blacksmith, Vendaar, the Hand was entended to end the war quickly. Vendaar, being a son of Hephaestus and Aphrodite, was a master of fire and persausion. Traveling across the world, he persauded the ambassadors of the great Nation of the Inferno to allow him access to the The Flame, a special temple hidden deep within the Earth. Without the ambassadors knowledge, Vendaar stole five enchanted fires from The Flame- the red Fire of Anger, the blue Fire of Strength (or Power), the green Fire of Rebirth, the white Fire of Seduction, and the golden Fire of Ashes. 

WIP