Chapter 981: Ness, Your Crazy Is Showing

"Great! Then let’s celebrate Serena joining us by going all the way tonight! Apollo, stay here, Serena come with me. We will make sure we have a room here tonight and when the event is finally concluded, another event will take place." Kathrine then stood up, grabbed Serena by the arms and began dragging her away, leaving me on my own.

"Well, that just happened."

I thought aloud and picked my drink up off the floor and took a sip before smirking. I hadn’t planned on having sex tonight, but with Kathrine being here it was already 100% going to happen. Now we just have an extra Hyllus added into the equation.

’A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.’

However, with this new amazing event in my life, another hurdle now presented itself. ’How do I get Valerica not to kill Serena when she finds out that we are now together? Hmm, now that I think about it, this is a pretty awkward time to start a new relationship. Once I am back from the Coalition, I’m going home and I plan on staying there for a little while...’

I took another sip of my drink and shrugged my shoulders. I decided to leave that to future Apollo, I am sure he knows what to do.

With future Apollo magnanimously taking away the need to think, I sat back with my beverage and began relaxing for a moment. That moment didn’t last long though, as soon as I was no longer in company, people began looking at me. The glint in their eyes suggesting they wanted to talk with me...

I shuddered at the thought.

I stood up, I decided it was time for a walkabout, perhaps finding out where the others had gotten off to in the process.

...

"Yes! Ahahahaha Yes! I found it!" A voice shouted out in sweet, sweet victory.

Rhapso raised a scroll above her head, clenching it tight in excitement. "Ness, you can stop looking I found-It. What are you doing? Are you reading when you were supposed to be helping me? No wonder it has taken all day!" She exclaimed in aggrievance, but Nerissa didn’t even acknowledge her.

True to her Nymph nature, this intrigued Rhapso and she approached Nerissa who was hunched over a very large tome skimming the pages with her fingers. Nerissa didn’t even sense her approach. Very out of character for one obsessed with observing.

"Ness!" Rhapso slammed her hand down on the page, blocking Nerissa’s line of sight, this caused her to jolt to attention.

"W-What? What time is it? Oh, no we have left Apollo alone for too long! What shenanigans have we missed?"

"Nerissa, what were you looking at instead of helping me find the rites?" Rhapso asked, not wanting to change the subject just yet.

Nerissa looked down at the book and back up at Rhapso. Lying made no sense, but caution was needed. "One second."

She then walked to the edge of the room where her armour was standing idle and she clicked her gems in a pattern to heavily suppress the sound coming from the room.

She then turned back to Rhapso and Rhapso raised her eyebrow as Nerissa’s entire face turned crazed.

"I’m plotting out a chart from the data we have accumulated."

"And what data is that exactly?" Rhapso asked, prompting Nerissa to look at her like she was speaking an alien language.

"Data. The data. Apollo. Who was he before this existence? Where he came from. Look Look. The book. This marks Hephaestus’ change to Vulcan. This was before the war with the betrayer. This was during the golden age. But then Tower collapse wasn’t around then. It was closer to the incident. And remained popular for another ten, maybe twenty thousand years afterwards."

Rhapso began to frown as Nerissa continued, opening another book.

"We know he reincarnated, he told us in the glade. But when did he die? I doubt it was the incident, as look at Artemis. What she had to do to survive. No, Apollo is whole. Mortal, but whole. Or did he even die? Could he have ascended through time?"

Nerissa then went wide eyed again and went to another book.

"And then there was that weird name he mentioned. Kronus. I have been looking and there is nothing. I even checked similar spellings. Cronus, with a ’C’, Kronos. The only close match is Chronos, but I don’t think that is the connection, I think the time angle is a stretch anyway.

And then there is this odd account I found in-"

"Nerissa, Stop now!" Rhapso roared ragefully.

Nerissa snapped out of her state. "Rhapso?" She was shocked to her core.

"Apollo asked you not to look into it. Why can’t you just accept what we know? Why do you have to do this? Although this isn’t breaking his trust, it is very on the edge. He asked us in that glade to keep his secret a secret. Looking into all this stuff? It brings suspicion. We have spoken about this before. Him being found out spells disaster for him at this moment in time. So stop!"

Nerissa opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She looked at the books on the desk and then at the countless all around her and in the adjoining libraries. There must be something. One little thing that could help her figure out the truth...

She just wanted to know for certain.

She wanted to know more about her friend...

She let out a large sigh and closed the book on the desk, sighing dejectedly.

"I’m sorry, Rhapso. You are right. Apollo has done a lot for us, too much. And I couldn’t even muster up the willpower to fight against my intrigue."

Rhapso nodded her head. "Good. I am sorry for yelling, but I take my friendship with Apollo very seriously, as you know." She then raised the scroll in her hand and gave it a little shake, prompting Nerissa to ask rhetorically.

"You found it? Good for you, I suppose."

Rhapso smirked cheekily. "Yes, it is. I am going to Maia right now for help with the ingredients for the rites. I could, of course, ask her for two sets of ingredients, if you want?"

Nerissa hesitated to answer the question, her mind asking itself a million of their own. She ended up shaking her head though. "I’m, I’m not ready for that."

Rhapso smiled lovingly at her sister. "And that is perfectly fine. We both know how we feel about Apollo, we will both go at our own pace. My pace is just faster than yours. Now, I think it’s best we both leave this library. I’ll go to Maia now, will you pack some supplies for us? Try and get some Deimos rifles, Apollo’s safety needs to be our top priority in the xeno’s territory."

Rhapso then turned to skip away, but before she did. Nerissa asked. "Are you not curious? At all? Not even a little bit?"

No.

That was her answer. She knew the truth. She knew her truth. Apollo was her god. She needed what she needed to know, whatever he wanted her to know. That was enough. Her faith didn’t need to be tested, she didn’t need answers. All she needed was to serve her god and that is what she was going to do.

Though, considering Nerissa was her friend, and her god had a soft spot for her, she lied. "Of course I am. I’m dying to know all his dirty little secrets, but he asked us not to probe, so I won’t. Call it me being younger than you, but I find just accepting what we know like the tide. I will allow it to ebb and flow and I will not interfere."

Rhapso then left the room, leaving Nerissa alone. She glanced at the books one last time before smiling at her actions. She had missed time with her friend by being a little bit crazy.

She hastily tidied up, placing books and scrolls back where she found them. As for the mess Rhapso made... She had a very important mission to prep for, someone else could deal with that.

...

She peered around the corner, the cost was clear. She had to use the others as bait, but she would remember their valiant sacrifice. She had to get back to the party; it was her utmost priority. She was already hours behind schedule having not taken in outlier factors, such as the reason she was currently hiding.

She began to emerge from her hiding place, but the moment she did, she felt a presence behind her. Swilling round, her years of training kicked in and began engaging in close quarters combat, however, all of her attacks were effortlessly countered and in the end, her wrists were being grabbed by a big pair of meaty mittens.

Clearing her throat, she looked up and smiled at the man who had her vulnerable. "H-Hey you. Enjoying the party?"

Hugo’s face was not amused. "You have been avoiding me, Gabrielle. And I know why. So I am willing to forgive the ’trashing’ of Olympus during your ’escape’ and will take the punishment for that myself, but in exchange, you and I are going to sit down somewhere quiet and have a quick therapy session. We seriously need to talk about this ’plan’ of yours."

Gabrielle went quiet as she looked up at Hugo for a few moments before taking in a deep breath.

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!"