Ch. 146: The Origin Of Pandora (I)
Talos led me to one of the seats nearby and hovered over to the fridge. “What do you want to drink? Beer? Milk?”
I crossed my hands and leaned back into the seat and spoke. “You know why I’m here yet you choose to mock me.”
She turned back to the fridge and I heard the clinking of glasses. “Beer it is then.”
She really still never listened to me. “So how did things go with Hephestus and you?”
She handed me a bottle and sat next to me. “As you can guess we made up. You were right about guilt holding me down, it made me irrational. Feelings sure are a drag.”
I took a little gulp before setting the bottle back on the table. “I don’t remember saying that ever but continue.”
She took out her phone and started to tap on it. “What have you been doing all this time? Wait, don’t answer that. You’ve been training right? You got the message I sent to your assistant then but you came late and somehow managed to come here. Does this mean you’re finally prepared for the war?”
As usual her mind was a crackle of firecrackers. “What war?”
She tapped relentlessly at the screen and then showed me something. “Pandora has become a rising celebrity lately because of her beauty, apparently in the original timeline this did not happen but something changed things.”
“And that being?” I asked.
She looked at me with a powerful gaze and said. “Hermes apparently busted their facility where they used children for experiments a few years back.”
“And what does that all have to do with this?” I asked again.
She continued to stare at me, meaning she wanted me to figure it out myself. Good to see she had that old habit of hers back. “If Hermes was able to pull that off and come out alive, then their plans must be on hold. So you’re telling me Pandora will become Mr Anonymous in future meaning Apollo was also involved in the circle.”
I thought harder, trying to reach the idea she was trying to hit.
“But how does it all connect?” I asked myself.
Talos looked back at her phone and mumbled. “Just a few years training and your brain has been clogged by excess muscle. And I used to see you as my rival.”
“Well I’ll tell you either way. After I recovered I devoted myself totally to this mission and was able to figure out a number of things. Remember how I told you my memories started in blood and waking up among some bodies? It appears I am one of the original test subjects for black amber, meaning I was the only one who died and came back. That infact leads me to suspect the fact that I might also be an otherworlder such as yourself.”
Now this was an interesting development.
“The second thing is the fact that I intercepted a key information about the circle. Due to Hermes intervention they are planning something big a week from now. There will be a convention, for the rising Pandora brand and something will happen on that day. Pandora herself admitted this on the day we had an encounter.”
“Another thing is that I already know of the true identity of Pandora.”
I looked at her with more intent and asked. “Really?”
“Quit acting like a child, it’s not in my nature to lie about such things.” She dissed me. “Pandora was apparently something from ancient times. It’s best for Hephestus to explain.”
“Hey stubborn old man! Come over here!” She shouted.
A while later Hephestus came back all sweaty from whatever work he had been doing. He sat down and after settling down decided to start the explanation of what or who Pandora was.
“Way back during the great war between the gods and titans, Titanomachy. Apparently all of the negative emotions of that battle blended into something horrendous, a great misfortune. So many evils bred from that battle, after the defeat of the titans we sought to lock them away.”
“All the evils— sorrow, disease, vice, violence, greed, madness, old age, death— to plague the world was sealed away in a chest of my making. A chest that could not be opened easily, the gods tasked me with such a task and I called this chest— Pandora’s box.”
He stopped and let the words settle into me. I raised my head and locked eyes with him and said. “Are you trying to tell me that Pandora is the contents of the box? The great evil?”
Hephestus’ body trembled violently at the thought of it and said. “I am afraid so.”
I banged by my fist on the tabled and boomed with intent. “Just how did you let this happen? How did she or it escape the box?”
Hephestus looked at me with his haunched figure, his eyes trembling slightly. He raised his head and sighed.
Talos that had been silent all this while spoke up suddenly. “Its was because of me. Apparently the box always lay dormant unable to interact with the natural world but in a state of crisis and with the right conditions it could interact with it.”
I looked over at her and said. “Make sense with what you’re saying before I decide to get my answers more personally.”
Hephestus motioned for her to keep silent as he took the helm and spoke. “I was looking for scraps, things I could recycle into newer designs when I found Talos as a child among the other bodies I could tell she was dying, moved by pity I brought her back and tried to save her.”
“Pardon me but you don’t actually seem like a doctor!” I lashed out.
Talos glared at me. “You are unusually cranky today.”
“Continue!” I ordered.
Hephestus looked at me with grim eyes. “There was no way I could take a child there without drawing unwanted suspicion. A day after I took Talos the bodies were gone like they never existed. I tried to stabilize her but I had never seen a posion like that before. I was just about giving up when I heard a resonance from the box, it called out to me and gave me a chance to save Pandora.”
“It was like being possessed by the desire to save the poor girl . I took the chance and opened the box for a few moments enough for it to take her body but before it could possess her I shut it and she was fine.”
I looked at his muscles flinch. “But that wasn’t all now was it?”
His eyes started to tremble even more. “No it wasn’t. Pandora infected me and Talos, even after curing her it cursed both her and me.”
I almost gasped as my head tried to wrap around the fact. “Could it be that the curses are gotten from those who have come into contact with Pandora herself?”
What is an author without is loyal readers?
If I revive a magic castle I will mass release 10 chapters
