In The Beginning, Chapter 132

The children of Hermes gathered on the enormous ship, each angry, each with their own agenda to increase their power, a feat they needed their father for, or for him to die at their hands. Meanwhile their uncles had picked the corpse clean, funnelling his money into their own accounts, and transferring deeds before they had been notified of their father’s murder. The atmosphere on the ship they had been summoned to was tense, almost tangible with how thick it permeated the air. If the crowned prince noticed, he didn’t show it, the surviving favours around him were too afraid to move, perched on their pillows as they tried to take the pressure off their wounds. They flinched in unison when Agreus, one of the goats, stomped through the doors, snorting and frothing at the mouth as he approached the throne.
“What is the meaning of this!?” He snarled at the prince, who turned his nose up is disgust.
“Get away from me, you disgusting abomination!” The prince snarled back as a glob of saliva splattered near his shoe. “The One True King has put me in charge of my brother’s businesses, as he did not name an heir, and even if he did, he had nothing to leave you. You have been given the honour of avenging him, everything else he had was gifted to him by our father, with the understanding that it would be returned, if he was killed... Which he was, due to his own actions, and he took one of your brothers with him! Along with two of my sons, three grandsons, and eight of my great grandsons! He took four of my nephews, my brother’s sons.” The prince spat. “These loses, demand compensation. Your father was reckless and stupid! In everything! He was ordered to take you all with him! But he took only his security team! That’s on him!” The prince continued to rant, while Agreus tried to retreat, the many times the crowned prince had humiliated him and his brothers, punishing them for not being a perfect copy of the King, like he and his children were, leaving a sour taste in his mouth, and an urge to hurt something.
“I apologise your majesty, I was unaware, my grief got the better of me.” He mumbled, the hatred in him growing, like a furnace, and every word out of the prince’s mouth was more fuel for the flames.
“Why would you be? You are hardly high enough up the chain of command to know anything.” The prince dismissed, with distain.
“May I request an update, on when we attack?” Agreus asked, his eyes on the floor, he silently repeated the vow that had kept him going for centuries. “I will kill you one day, uncle, or die trying.” The animosity between the princes, and their children was well known, despite their propensity for trading offspring like baseball cards, most of Herme’s sons had been refused positions in their uncle's courts, companies, and businesses. Zeus had given power to only three of his sons, the rest, like his grandsons, were put to use in one capacity or another, some might find themselves elevated but never to the heights of Apollo, Dionysus and Hermes. The first of his sons, Apollo had been there to help him when he began his grand plan, you could say his conception was its inception. His next sons, Dionysus and Hermes, were also the result of a godly union, and as such, Zeus considered them more worthy than his other children. One of the reasons the prince held Hermes and his children with such contempt, was because he could have so easily been like them. Had his mother not fled Zeus before she knew he was inside her; he might have been experimented on too, then again, maybe not. When Zeus had impregnated the whore that carried his half-brothers, he had been particularly interested because they were twins, the perfect test subjects, he could manipulate the DNA of one, while allowing the other to develop naturally, a test of which would be stronger, better. This pattern continued to some of his other children, and many of his grandchildren, which had resulted in many of the abominations he saw before him. While some just had horns and appeared mostly human, but the lizard men and snake woman were particularly difficult to look at. The men, brothers for all intents and purposes, appeared half human, half Komodo dragon, their heads too long, their mouths were where their chins should be, and they scales instead of skin, they had black dead eyes, and razor-sharp teeth and claws. While the female, had the body of a snake, with arms, shoulders and the head of a human, she was also covered in scales, she had no snakes for hair however... The prince smiled as he remembered spreading the silly rumour about her older sister, the humans had quickly destroyed her. Hermes had been furious; he burned the village of the man responsible after he found her head on an alter as part of a sacrifice. And he never tried his luck with a favour of mine again, the prince chuckled to himself.
“Yes, you may stay while I am updated, I am feeling charitable, you did just lose your father, after all.” The prince finally addressed Agreus, who had to fight the urge to show his displeasure. “Where is... What was his name?” The prince asked one of his men, snapping his finger annoyed as he did so.
“Cephalus, your majesty.” The man replied, his stance unchanging.
“Yes, right you are Anius, bring forth Cephalus!” The prince commanded, to no one in particular, but the man was shoved before him none the less, scowling at whomever pushed him with malice in his eyes, as his knees roughly hit the floor. “Speak! Unless you think I can pull the information out of your head!” The prince snapped, sick of being surrounded by the foul creatures, and longing for the comforts of any of the cities he had made his home.
“Only the warriors are left, they shipped out everyone else, we think they have about a thousand, but they have been hesitant to show their numbers in full-”
“It is not your place to think, just report!” The prince interrupted.
“Apologies, your majesty, I meant to say, they appear to have approximately a thousand men, but we can offer no certainty of that number. Their boarders are mostly undefended, a small crew walk the fence line to the North during the day, and they have fighting men run it at night, and a small group surrounding the house. All three Alphas are in the house, with the female, and some of their men, but she is getting restless, one of my men got close enough to hear her complaining about it to the witch.” Cephalus reported bitterly.
“There could be an opportunity there...” The prince mused, seeming to ignore the court completely. “Anything else?” He finally asked the prone scout, the boot of one of his men pressed into Cephalus’ spine. “What of Hera? Did you see her?”
“No, she has not been seen since shortly after the attack...” He trailed off, he had been the one to see his father’s corpse, mangled and destroyed, his organs crushed and punctured by his own bones. Blood streaked his face from every orifice, his scent the only thing that remained unchanged after the wolves hung him from a tree branch. A display of their brutality and disregard for the dead.
“Hmm, I want her under surveillance for the next twelve hours, then I shall decide.” The prince nodded, but mostly to himself, while Cephalus was horrified.
“Your majesty please!? My men will be caught! We have to pull back if we are to remain or we will be picked off one by one!” He yelled from his position on the floor, wriggling to be free of his captor to plead his case on his knees if need be.
“You dare question me!? I want her to feel your eyes on her, she doesn’t get a moment’s rest, a second of relief! That fucking whore, that lies with that beast, that killed my brother! She will know no peace. I want them paranoid; I want them terrified, and then, I’m going to make them watch as I drag her away.” The prince snarled, leaning forward on his throne.
“We can accomplish all that and fall back!” Cephalus growled, the prince didn’t say a word, his eyes shot to Anius, and the scout's head was gone, his limb body slumped to the floor. His head bounced off-balanced and haemorrhaging blood as it began to roll towards the shocked and horrified family members. It finally came to a stop at the feet of one of his sisters, she watched, silently, tears flowing down her face, too afraid she would be next to react. One of the favours closest to the body began screaming, it would have been heart wrenching for anyone with a heart, but to the prince it was infuriating. He left his throne, stomping through the women, who shrank back away from him in fear, until he reached the one who couldn’t stop screaming. She had become hysterical, openly yanking at her chain and screaming to be released, she didn’t seem to realise the prince was beside her, even when he placed his hands on her cheeks and forced her to look at him, she was too panicked to recognise the danger. He gave her a small pitying smile, and snapped her neck, letting her body fall to the floor with a thud, the blood of the scout stained her scarfs as it reached her body. The other women inched themselves as far away from the prince as their chains would allow, huddling together, in fear. The whole thing disgusted the prince, their fear, their weakness, their obvious inferior breeding. His mind went back to the girl, Charlie, she had made him feel something he hadn’t felt in millennia, and he hadn’t decided if it was good or bad, but he knew he would make her regret it. He stormed out of the room enraged, leaving the terrified women and Herme’s children to deal with the bodies. He wanted the perfect armour for their first official meeting, it had to be equal parts majestic, and terrifying, he thought as he walked into his rooms.
“Twenty-four hours, then I will have everything!” He smiled to his reflection in the mirror, confident, and in the mood to celebrate. He stripped himself of the black Hugo Boss suit on the way to the phone. “I want a girl, any girl, just young.” He demanded when the steward picked up, he slammed the phone down without waiting for an answer. The sudden realisation of what he should wear obvious to him. While he did adore some modern designers, when it came to armour, and battles, the classics were the only way to go. He chose his leather cuirass, designed to be the anchor for his golden pauldron and rerebraces, the featherlike design was what made humans believe he had golden wings, he chuckled to himself as he chose a baltea and greaves. He chose to dress in his vault, where he kept most of his armour, extending his stay amongst the beautiful treasures he had amassed, rather than the cheap, drab surroundings of the ship he was forced to inhabit. Someone had to keep an eye on the riffraff until they all get slaughtered, and then he would sink the ship with anyone left alive on board. He comforted himself by thinking as he dressed, until he had no choice but to return if he wanted to see the full effect, I should put a mirror in here, he sighed before going back. Appearing in front of the mirror gave him the element of surprise, the gold sun that’s centre rested in the middle of his chest glistened in the light, its rays spreading out protecting his body. His pauldrons and rerebraces stretched as he moved, the feather-like strips of metal adjusting while still protecting him, and allowing him full mobility, the classic darkly coloured roman baltea went well with the aged leather of the cuirass below the sun motif. Greaves with golden suns on the knees, and one of his spears completed the look. He was still admiring himself, imagining Charlie on a lead, on her knees before him, when the steward knocked, and a girl was pushed through the door. It slammed closed behind her and the locked engaged loudly, the prince did a double take, before he could tell her to sit down his voice was stolen, as was the air from his lungs. “Hebe?” He gasped, outraged, horrified and stunned.
“Apollo!?” She cried excitedly, running towards him with a smile.