Amdirlain's PoV - Hades

Wind and lightning battered Amdirlain as Aetos Kaukasios raced up the mountain. Every beat of the giant eagle's wings pulsed the surrounding air with energy, and a rift split the grey clouds high above them. The psionic pattern aimed at her targeted location, divided between a route over the mountain range and the purple rip in the clouds.

"You can take the rift. I know what's happening."

Aetos Kaukasios screeched and thrust hard with his wings before spreading them to grab another thermal current that tossed them high. He hit the centre of the rift, and they went from over the mountain range to a vast blue ocean in a blink. Spread across that beautiful water was a more insidious torture: millions of wrecked vessels scattered and broken into fragmented rafts. Those fragile havens supported thirsty sailors being circled by sharks. As she looked at the first wreck far below her, her perception of it jumped close. The distant ant-like speck of a sailor was suddenly clear. She could see his cracked-lips and peeling sunburnt skin, smell the salt on his skin, and hear desperate cries gurgling in the back of his parched throat. Despite their hoarse cries, fishing vessels with white triangular sails ventured from the closest shore, yet stayed kilometres from the bobbing wreckage.

Their white sails drew her attention to the shore beyond, where a Grecian city of gleaming white marble stood at the bottom of a mountain the size of Jupiter. The scale of the place had her wondering again how the unpunished inhabitants she could see got around, or if they were just isolated in assigned locations.

As they drew closer to the shore, Amdirlain spotted an amphitheatre emblazoned with the crest of King Minos on the landmass' southern side. The curved seating backed up against the mountainside and faced a stage with the metropolis and vast ocean beyond a distracting backdrop. To add to the difficulty for any performer, a large bronze disc was at the centre stage drawing attention. Upon it was a foul mosaic of a woman inside the cutaway of a bronze cow, allowing a massive bull to impregnate her. Though it matched the mythological tale of the Minotaur's origin, it was a tale Hades would have known to be a lie.

I'm so glad you died, Hades, yet I'd also have enjoyed killing you myself. The sacrifices to the Minotaur were said to be thrown into a pit. Would that be beneath the mosaic or somewhere else in the amphitheatre?

Thirteen channels, each ending at a different vast gate with a blank disc across its centre seam, divided the amphitheatre's seating into sections.

"Aetos Kaukasios, you've done well. Please land at the amphitheatre, and I'll reward you."

She provided an image of the location, and with a low cry, he altered course. As he crossed the distance, Amdirlain experimented. Whenever she expanded her senses outwards, the reverb and racket distorted all the music. However, the sense of his feathers came through clearly wherever they directly contacted her body. She repeated the exercise against flesh, beak, and talon and received the same results—she could hear clearly whatever she touched.

Touching things would activate their magical protections.

After hours of flying even to get close, Aetos Kaukasios stayed high above the metropolis on its final approach and then spiralled downwards on a wingtip. He perched atop a crossbeam of the first gates that ran along the back arc of the amphitheatre. Deep scars on the stonework showed it wasn't the first time he'd used it for that purpose.

"Behave while I dismount. We won't have a problem unless you try to attack me again."

Amdirlain reformed beside his feet, only for him to hop sideways with a flare of his wings, and land atop the next gate. As he ruffled his wings and settled in his new spot, he tilted his head to eye her warily.

"What reward would you like?"

Aetos Kaukasios let out a mighty screech of annoyance, whose meaning was clear.

"No, I will not let you feed on my guts for a thousand years. Make it a reasonable request or your only reward will be survival."

He waggled back and forth, and dipped his head to swish his beak against an upright stone to sharpen it. When he lifted his head again to eye her, she felt his mind catch on her azure hair before he cawed.

"What big blue do you want?"

He lifted his head higher and screamed at the sky.

"Come back here and stand beside me. I can give you a big blue sky if you don't resist. Though I have some conditions."

Another cry rang out, this time one that rumbled suspiciously in the back of his throat. He didn't move closer.

"Don't give me that. You're the one that tried to attack me first. I could have already killed you, with no need to set you up."

He closed his eyes and lifted his beak higher, a perfect picture of affronted dignity.

"The conditions are: you're not allowed to attack anyone first, only defend yourself, and any souls you see aren't to be brought back to Hades, leave them alone to travel their own path. The only exception I'll allow to self-defence is if you act to defend a Soul from any beings from the lower planes trying to attack it. Your role will be to see that travelling souls get to Judgement via the gates at the base of the Spire of the Outlands."

A screech and grumble cut off her explanation.

"You'll get a blue sky out of it."

Yet another loud screech resounded in the vast, kilometres-wide amphitheatre.

"It's not a trick. Given your long association with the Greek gods, I can understand your cynicism, but you don't have to be rude to me."

He turned about and cast up a pellet the size of a sperm whale of bone, gristle, feathers and fur. It plunged beyond the back wall and splattered against the stone of the pathway there.

I'm not cleaning that up.

"Do I want to know what you've been eating?"

A sharp exhalation carried the meaning of a chimera with lion, reptile, and chicken heads, with a snake for a tail.

"You can eat beasts, but I know you can tell when something has a Soul. Also, no trying to kill celestials or neutral beings from the outer planes, only entities from the lower planes," declared Amdirlain. "Those are not supposed to enter the Outlands."

He screeched yet again, a bone-vibrating protest.

"Yeah, you can't sense my Soul, it's shielded."

A sharp snap of wings and a thrashing head unleashed a racket that echoed through the structure.

"Enough. You're more dramatic than a husky."

He whinged and screeched some more, flapping up a hurricane as he protested the unfairness of her conditions and being compared to a dog.

"Fine, I'll give you something you can use to tell if something you spot is okay to fight."

The shift in his posture at her compliance was smugly self-assured.

"Shut up!"

He chirped.

"Stop trying to get in the last word."

With one eye fixed on Amdirlain, he rustled and fluffed his wings before he hopped back to his original perch beside her. The giant eagle perched primly, as if lowering his dignity to be seen associating with her. Its ankle was far out of easy reach, so Amdirlain rested a hand against the side of the closest toe. A True Song Crystal band enclosed his ankle, allowing Aetos Kaukasios to use a specialised Analysis and Planar Shift between Hades and the Outlands. She projected a warning of weirdness to come before a pulse of a tuning fork ran through him, attempting to change his Home Plane to the Outlands. Though he'd given her attitude, Aetos Kaukasios did not resist the change.

[Achievement: Pet Rescue, Air Corps.

Details: The orphaned Aetos Kaukasios has accepted your gift of guardianship.

Note: Now that pellet is your mess to clean up.]

No, it's not. He's smart enough to have dumped it somewhere else if he wanted to be clean.

A quick, meaningful foot shake occurred only after she stepped clear of him.

"You'll have to ask Cerberus to let you out, but then the band will let you skip between Hades and the Outlands. The enchantment will also tell you if something is okay to fight."

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With a quizzical head tilt for each stop, he looked down at the band, her, and finally at the grey clouds overhead.

"No, I don't know the way out." Amdirlain planted her hands on her hips. "I'll figure that out later. I still have souls to tend to here."

With that, he squawked and closed his eyes contentedly, settling into a stable resting posture on his chosen perch. His thoughts made it clear he'd wait for her departure.

I know the basics about tending to cats and dogs, but how do I look after a giant eagle? Well, that's a future me problem. Let's investigate this disc.

Amdirlain flew down to hover near the stage. Her initial examination of the disc at its centre showed plugs that would lift away at various places around its circumference, allowing access to the metal edge. Deep grooves in the stonework before the stage showed where a hoist could be set up, and the closest edge of the disc to those grooves showed a hinge. She knelt at the stage edge and activated True Sight only for the thick fog she'd encountered upon entering Hades to envelop her again.

Is there too much energy in the air? Or that I'm not allowed to use True Sight here, so the Domain counters it without disabling the Power?

She disabled it again and stretched her senses into the stonework. Level with the ground floor of the amphitheatre, she found a ward that extended into the mountain and sloped away towards the metropolis. Beneath the stage, the magical barrier formed a column aligned with the metal disc. The ward did nothing to stop her listening to it, but she could sense the cruel edges of divine traps waiting for those who forced their way through.

Revealing Ways provided detection spells she hadn't had to use in years. The primary purpose of the seal was to restrain those within the maze below from leaving. Runes across it showed it was safe to touch, but getting through it was different. Obvious protections indicated that if the seal was released incorrectly, the ward's ties would trigger. The most vicious of the protections reached into the depths of the mountain.

Crete is on a volcano. This place is a planet-sized version of that place, so it makes the super-volcano under Yellowstone look like a tiny firecracker. Maybe I should ask the locals if they ever open it.

Amdirlain checked the inserts and found tool marks in the gaps between them and the stone, so she experimentally pried one up. The ward on the metal disc didn't even stir, but all her spells showed her the curved gap where the two wards, and some linkages between them ran. She pushed the curved insert back in place and changed her form. She assumed the appearance of a Grecian woman with dark hair and a suntanned Mediterranean skin tone. The contours of her round face and straight nose were based on the appearance of Orhêthurin's mother, with a sprinkle of Hestia mixed in. Protean provided a white tunic, breeches, and sandals.

She moved to the ocean side of the stage and looked over the olive trees and scrub growth between herself and the first houses. Wide roads crossed the distance in several places, while the majority seemed given to olive groves and various grazing animals. A glimpse of a farmhouse among the trees provided a twinge from her Precognition prompting her to look for more.

As she scanned her surroundings for farmhouses, she saw a man and a boy running along a distant road towards the amphitheatre. Beyond them was another farmhouse that looked like it had seen better days, whitewash peeling from mud bricks. As she watched, the boy looked in her direction and waved excitedly.

That makes it obvious I'm not the only person who can see further than normal in this Domain. The enormous bird's arrival prompted them to check what was happening. Why just these two?

Analysis confirmed they were nominally father and son, as the father wasn't a Soul. Instead, he was a memory of the boy's father brought into existence by the Domain. The boy was a different matter.

[Name: Damon

Details: Eighth custodian of the seal of King Minos's Maze. His Soul is forfeit if the local inhabitants don't perform the proper rites and sacrifices before opening the way to the maze.]

Amdirlain looked over the young boy in a Grecian tunic and sandals more closely. More detection spells revealed an invisible laurel woven of divine energies clasped on his head.

I've gotten so used to teleporting around that it feels odd to wait. He's nearly thirty kilometres distant, yet is as easy to see as if he's a hundred metres away.

As Damon's attention fixed on her, his 'father' faded out, turning into wisps of energy that the Domain reabsorbed.

How many people in the metropolis result from memories or the expectations of souls?

His position jumped, and he was suddenly nearby, gasping and panting as if he'd run a marathon, sweat soaking his body. His thoughts on the effort that the day's run here had taken.

"Take a moment for yourself," Amdirlain advised as she sat on the edge of the stage.

Damon paced back and forth for a few minutes as he settled his breathing, and pushed his dark, sweat-soaked fringe from his eyes. His tunic was now dusty and darkened with sweat.

His expectations influence the appearance of his Soul.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting. What brings you to these lands, stranger?"

"You can call me Am. Do you have a name I can use?"

He lifted his chin in an attempt at dignity. "I'm called Damon, Am."

"Thank you for rushing so far to meet me, Damon. Might I ask why someone else didn't come with you?"

"It's my sole duty as custodian of the seal."

"You're just the person I wanted to see. As the custodian, can you tell me how I get past the seal, Damon? I'm on a quest to fetch three relics from within it."

"You're not here to vanquish the monster?"

I'm not going to explain the Soul jars.

"No, three containers got taken into the maze long ago. I'm here to fetch them back," said Amdirlain.

Damon scratched his head. "I don't know about any containers going in there. Was it something a hero who tried to slay the monster took in?"

"I'm sure those who took them inside considered themselves to be heroic, but to my family, they were murderers."

He dug his fingers into his forearms, his knuckles quickly whitened, and nails threatened to draw blood. "There are only two ways to enter the monster's maze. The rite of passage that all would-be heroes must pass, or as a sacrifice. Sacrifices cannot leave again, so you must test yourself against the rite if you wish to seek these containers."

There is a third way, but I can understand him not volunteering that I could kill him.

"I'm sorry to be blunt, but why is the seal linked to your Soul?"

Damon gasped in shock. "How did you know?"

"I can see the laurel across your brow. This is its meaning, isn't it?"

"The laurel appeared on my brow after the destruction of the previous caretaker. It let me know the duty fell to me among the residents of this land."

Amdirlain restrained her urge to curse out the dead gods. "Though I'm not a hero, would you explain the rite of passage?"

"Just as Eurystheus set labours for Heracles, you must complete twelve tasks spread throughout Lord Hades's Domain."

Seriously? What a pain in my arse.

Damon spread his arms to the outermost gates at either end of the amphitheatre's arc and brought them inwards as he spoke. Eventually he stood with both hands palm up and pointed to the middle of the amphitheatre's back wall, as if beseeching the central gate. "Then enter the central gate to receive Hades's approval."

"Hades is dead."

He sombrely nodded. "We know."

"Then how can I get his approval?"

Damon sighed. "I don't know what will happen. Indeed, I have nothing to guide you, and no information to even hazard a guess, since no one has ever completed the rites and emerged from the maze."

"Has anyone ever tried?"

"Some have tried and died or given up. None of those successful in the rites returned from the maze." Damon closed his eyes and his body tensed. "If you'd make it quick, please."

"Make what quick?"

"You know the seal links to my Soul. I assumed you'd kill me to force your way in."

Amdirlain moved to him and cupped his face gently. With skin-to-skin contact, she expanded her senses and took in the theme of his Soul, which was undistorted by the Domain's riotous noise. It held the same variations as other souls incorrectly transitioned to the realm. Though he didn't appear to have reached his teens, he'd already been in the state for eight thousand years. She could sense the rigid cords that linked him to the capstone's seal.

Could I send him out? That might cause his bond to the seal to backfire, or the bond might jump to another person, and the seal will snap back in place.

"I won't hurt you, Damon." Amdirlain released him. "Would you explain why any would attempt these trials?"

Despite her reassurance, he kept his eyes tightly closed. "For conquering the maze, the hero gets three servings of ambrosia to grant themselves and their closest loved ones immortality such as the gods enjoy. Or at least enjoyed? Our tales say it was originally one serving, but no one came to take up the challenge."

My Procognition doesn't give me any feeling of explicit danger while contemplating the trials.

"What's the first trial?"

Damon's eyes snapped open. "What?"

Would I have once have taken the expedient course? Traded a follower of the Greek gods for a path to my family's souls? Is that the problem with the elven group that's been blocking my progress in progressing my sigil? They came from a harsh world, from what Sarah said. How many expedient choices did they make each day?

Amdirlain frowned with concern. "I'm not a hero, but I'm not a monster. What's the first trial?"

"I don't know. A hero needs to find where people need them."

"I take it there is fighting involved?"

"Fighting against monstrous foes is common, but it's not always the case. Our records show that sometimes there's a puzzle the hero needs to solve. Each door will take you close to a problem to resolve. Once you arrive, you have thirty days to find and complete the task, then return. If you take longer than that, there will be no way back here. Fail at any point, and the door vanishes."

Hopefully, Precognition helps me determine whatever trouble the door decides I must fix.

"Nothing like working to a time limit." Amdirlain motioned Damon towards the doors. "Which one do I go through first?"

"The far left. If you'd follow me."

Damon turned and trotted along. Amdirlain considered patiently following in his wake, yet making him cross the ten kilometres to reach the entryway between the seats seemed excessive. She released a Spell to lift them and speed them across the tops of seats. The old-child stared at her wide-eyed, his gaze glowing with delight rather than terror.

The channel reminded Amdirlain of a cinema or stadium exit, with the angled wall and the seating rising on either side. At the gate's threshold, the walls on either side loomed five hundred metres above them.

When they stopped a few metres before the stone gate, Damon wiggled his feet and looked down. "Flying is fun."

She clasped his hand again to take in his melody and performed a short song linking Flight into his Soul. "Then it's a gift for you to keep. Just will yourself up and focus on where you want to go. It will take some practice, so don't get too far off the ground."

He laughed in delight and flew forward to touch the stone gates. At that contact, the gates vanished and a pane of energy wavered like a heat mirage within its archway.

"Thanks. I hope to see you soon." Amdirlain touched the energy pane, and in a blur of light and sound, felt like she'd been flung through a wormhole.

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