15Let's say that everything that happens in life is for a reason, which means that things are predestined to happen so that an end-goal can be met. You don't know what this goal is, and you don't know who wants it to happen. If anything, you don't even know what'll happen once events start becoming a linear set of good reasons for things to happen in the future.
There are some people who'd agree that "foreshadowing" is a phenomenon exclusively for stories. But isn't the life of an individual a daily story? Regardless of age or interest, people are not idle when they experience Life. In this case, doesn't that mean that foreshadowing is a real thing? But authors are the ones who make foreshadowing happen in stories, which also begs the question of whether this "author" in our lives can be identified as a higher being or as simply ourselves.
So does predestination actually have anything to do with this form of foreshadowing, or are we just individuals with an ambiguous path to follow, making choices that leave coincidental examples of foreshadowing behind ourselves without realizing that they're crucial to understanding our fates?
Hindsight is 20-20, I guess.
"If your belief in something is contingent upon how often things go your way, it's time you reevaluate your reasons for believing in it." - Unknown
"I have a question," Perseus announced one day to Hendrix when they were gathered in his home for lunch and some work-outside-of-work.
"And what would that be?" was the distracted response. Hendrix rummaged around a drawer in his office, looking for something.
Percy, previously content with lounging on a loveseat off to the side like a satisfied cat, straightened up. "I know I've only been here for a few days, and you've taken me around the area a few times, but every time we're out I've never seen a church or anything that really denotes that there's even a little bit of faith. I've only seen people's devotion to the government, which is fine, but the lack of religious influence is obvious."
Hendrix tensed up before slowly turning around to face Percy. "I would keep those thoughts to yourself when outside of my and Rick's houses. You could get into a lot of trouble for even mentioning the 'R' word in public."
"…The 'R' word'?"
"Religion."
Percy's eyes scrunched up in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"A long time ago, when the government we have today was being founded, the Union agreed that one major reason for conflict was religious fanaticism. They figured that it would be impossible to change the minds of those with set beliefs and decided that erasing it all together would allow the newer generations to flourish in a less divided way. Since there were always conflicts about who or what created humanity and governed it, the Union decided that it would be best to not have the question asked in the first place."
"So they wanted to control people by making them ignorant? That's ridiculous, how could they even do that?"
"Pretty much, but I don't have all the details for how they were able to locate missing artefacts and destroy evidence of the influence of religion from history. I only know about it from old journal entries by a radical group that tried to stop what they called 'the Scourge'. Apparently, it was an umbrella term by this group for the total eradication of religion and religious ideology. They wrote that it was a very dark age." Hendrix's eyes brightened for a moment before he jogged to a bookshelf of PDF cards. He combed through them before taking one out. "Here, I can show it to you."
Hendrix popped it into his computer and beckoned Percy over as he pulled up the entries from centuries ago. "The group was called the Immortals. According to their writings, they named themselves that because they were adamant about keeping religion a thing that would last forever. They considered themselves believers whose belief would never die. Ironically, they were wiped out."
Percy scrolled through the documents, reading through what he could and looking back at Hendrix for confirmation that the things he's reading actually happened. He needed this confirmation because what he was reading seemed painful and personal. The author's name was Drogma, and they wrote about their efforts to keep the Government from destroying what they called their 'livelihood.' Drogma went off to say that the Government was a 'tyrannical body of devilish influence puppeteered by a higher devilry', whatever that meant. They recorded successes and losses, detailing each encounter and what they believed the meetings would entail. Drogma augured and predicted the fall of humanity and dramatized the possible repercussions of letting such an 'influenced headless horse' rule. All in all, the recordings were pretty grim.
"I know of a legend, it is a small hope for us, about a slumbering guardian that protects mankind. I have heard whispers from my people, and omens have appeared whenever such stories are mentioned. I myself believe these rumors to be true, for I had a dream where the Queen of the Greeks - an ancient race of believers - visited me. She warned me that it is imperative that I find this guardian to save my cause, and that he is a powerful ally. She warned me that the guardian is even more everlasting that herself and that the Earth answers only to him. However, I have found nothing, and the divine Lady has not visited me again. I fear, however, that the Devil among sheep shall name us 'the Dead' if we do not find this elusive guardian soon, as our world would not survive the aftermath if such darkness were to flourish without contest. After all, few people know that the Unity was birthed through empyrean villainy."
This was the last paragraph of the diary, and it startled Percy to the core.
"Hendrix, come here!" The man had gone back to searching his drawers for whatever thing he was looking for but was startled by Percy's sudden call. He jogged over to the computer. Percy pointed at the passage. "Look."
The mortal's eyes widened, and he passed his hand through his hair in shock, "By the Apex…. What is this?"
Percy shook his head, "Drogma's talking about me, and I think I know what they're writing about."
Hendrix looked at him in horror, "Then what actually happened?"
"Ananke."
"Brother."
"You know that he will find out."
"He already has."
"He will not react favorably to your machinations."
"It is inevitable that he does. But have hope: he is pure of heart."
"You know, when I first read that file, I admired the guy for his perseverance, but I figured that he was kind of tickled in the head. He would write about the strangest things…," commented Richard after Percy and Hendrix brought the revelation to his attention.
Richard is currently seated in the living room with a show playing on the Tele-Screen. Jaideen was seated next to him with her head resting on his shoulder and giving them her undivided attention.
"Could this guy have been onto something? I mean, you have an actual God in your house; we didn't think anything of what he was saying was real when we first read his journals. Now that we have the existence of deities confirmed, then what would it have meant for humanity if a god visited him in his dreams about the government being a bad thing?" asked Hendrix.
"It could have probably meant that the goddess that visited him didn't want her pantheon to be erased from the books. She could have just been trying to preserve her followers, even though the government may not have been as bad as this guy was putting it out to be," Richard countered. "She could have been using his doubt to her advantage to fuel his resolve."
Percy contemplated what Richard said, and decided that this could have probably been the case. Hera was known for her protectiveness over Olympus, and the loss of followers would have been a crippling weakness. She's a conniving goddess and may have done exactly that and helped the seeds of doubt grow within the skeptical mortal.
"Be that as it may," began Jaideen, "but the government was documented to have been ruthless in its attempt to erase religion of the face of the earth. What they were doing must have made the gods see them as a threat, but why didn't they just reveal their existence and remove the Union entirely?"
"The gods can't directly interfere in mortal affairs without being challenged directly," Percy answered. "Hera wouldn't have been able to smite them to oblivion without divine retribution from the three Fates. There are laws that limit the power of the gods in the mortal world."
"Do they apply to you too? Since you're a Primordial God?"
"Probably," he said. He'd never really stopped to think about what was barred from him. He figured that he'd need to be careful with the things he does since he is the planet itself. He'll have to ask Ananke the next time she stops by.
"She must not have been really concerned about it, though, since she didn't visit Drogma again," said Hendrix.
"Or something could have happened to her."
They sat there in silence, thinking about what could have happened to a goddess.
Percy stood up. "We need to find Olympus. I need to know what happened."
Richard looked at him with wide eyes. "What? Are you insane? What if we get caught!"
"We don't even know where it is." Said Hendrix. "The Empire State Building that it resided over in your story doesn't exist anymore."
"Then we'll visit America. They might still be there."
"What if it's not? I remember the old goddess that appeared and told us where you were hidden. She left you that shield, didn't she? And the statue?"
Percy looked away, "She did. And she's most likely dead as a result."
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know for sure, but it may have been what Hera was trying to prevent that finally got to her. If gods don't have enough followers to give them energy, then they lose power and eventually fade into the void. It's the closes thing to death that immortals can get."
"And if that happened to her, then what makes you think that we'll find any others?"
"Athena was younger than Hera, so she wasn't exposed to as much worship as the Elder Gods. They had more energy stored away than she did, so I'm sure that they're still alive, if just barely."
"And what will you do if they're still alive?"
Percy took this moment to turn back around and give them the most determined look they've ever seen. His eyes smoldering with resolve. "I'll preserve them."
So a lot of things going on in this chapter, and there finally seems to be a bit more plot than the chapters before. Huzzah!
There are a couple of things that I want you guys to do, and one of them is to not dismiss the beginning of the chapter and the quote. It might not seem all that interesting right now, but use it as a reminder to look for patterns in the story. You might find out things that you didn't see before. Also! There is actual foreshadowing in this chapter, so if you can find it, then great! Let me know in the comments what you think will (not should) happen in future chapters!
And last, but not least, what do you think Ananke and the mysterious Brother were talking about in their little cameo scene? I can assure you that it's not as simple and forward as it seems.
I know that this chapter is unusually shorter than the rest, but I decided to take a page out of Shakespeare's book and use shorter scenes for dramatic effect (**cough**'Hamlet'**cough**). But don't worry about it being a common occurrence for those of you that like the long chapters (because I know I do), since the story is supposed to be predominantly long chaptered.
And if you noticed that the summary of the story changes a lot, then let me just say that I'm sorry about that. So far, I'm having a hard time coming up with a nice synopsis that doesn't reveal too much but still catches people's attention. I'm probably going to just redo it once I finish the story. I might even let you guys help me decide on a few of them, so let me know in the comments how you feel about that.
Sorry for the long note, so I'll just end it here. 'til next time!
I'm not ofreakingk (I'm also thinking about changing my username, but that's not important right now.)