Kairos 79: Expedition Preparations

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It had been months since Kairos slept in his own bed.

Though he had grown used to the Foresight’s cabin and the guest rooms on his journey had been quite comfortable, he felt more at peace in his fortress in Histria. Perhaps he subconsciously associated it with the idea of ‘home,’ the same way he valued the old family house in Lissala. Or maybe there was something magical about enjoying a warm room with its private fireplace while snow fell against a closed glass window. After spending so many weeks fighting, plotting, and traveling, Kairos could finally rest.

Or he would have, if Julia hadn’t joined him beneath the blankets naked.

Kairos thought they would put off sex during her pregnancy, but if anything, his long absence had only made his wife more eager to make up for lost time. Their lovemaking was different from his nights with Andromache, as they had to experiment with new positions due to Julia’s condition, but it was no less passionate.

When they finished, Kairos rolled to the side while Julia lay on her back. Her husband’s eyes trailed to her belly, and the life growing inside it. “Do you know if it will be a girl or a boy?” he asked softly.

“Not yet,” Julia replied while removing sweat from her forehead. “Your Titan protector shields the child from all forms of divination.”

“Prometheus?”

“Who else but the Titan of Foresight can ruin divinations from afar? Even Orgonos needed to apply his mark to you first.”

Point taken. Kairos made a note to set up a private shrine to the Titan in his home. Prometheus didn’t seek worship and preferred to operate in secrecy, but the Travian king thought he deserved tribute. The ancient divinity had protected mankind since time immemorial, and guided Kairos’ family from afar through difficult times.

“I missed you, husband,” Julia whispered while her fingers trailed against his chest.

“Me too,” he replied, though he couldn’t suppress a wave of guilt.

Julia immediately noticed. “You’re thinking of your nymph.”

Kairos wasn’t sure how to answer. Yes, he was thinking of Andromache. She had returned to the lighthouse in good grace and tried to respect their arrangement, but leaving her alone right after they finally lifted her curse felt shameful. He had a duty towards his wife and shared some affection with Julia, but his heart was pulled in two directions.

“My brother informed me of her pregnancy,” Julia said with a sigh as she rested her head on a pillow. “Now I understand what she felt when she learned of mine.”

“I’ve seen the gazes Caenis sends me when she sees us together,” Kairos said. The handmaiden would have killed to stand in his place at Julia’s side. “Have you ever wondered what your life would have been, if you could have married her?”

“Probably as many times as you imagined a future where you married Andromache.” Julia let out a sigh. “Before our wedding, the thought of eloping with Caenis and leaving everything behind crossed my mind many times. My brother had a shorter reach than the one he has today, and I knew a few places where he wouldn’t look for me.”

“Travia?”

“No, husband.” Julia chuckled. “Don’t take it the wrong way, but I didn’t think much of your homeland before we met. I intended to go to Achlys instead.”

That made sense. “Your mother came from there, if I remember.”

“She did, and I still have distant relatives there. Caenis and I would have lived in peace among the amazons. They always look for seers, and I have many useful talents. It would have been a good life. Resisting this sweet call was probably one of my life’s hardest decisions.”

“Why didn’t you go for it?”

“For the same reason why you didn’t marry Andromache, I suppose. I wanted to rule, and leave my footprint in history.” Julia looked a little regretful as she said it, but quickly regained her composure.”Would you have sacrificed Travia for love?”

“No,” Kairos replied almost immediately. He had been willing to set aside alliances for Andromache’s sake, but if he had the choice between never seeing her again and saving his people from destruction, he would always choose his homeland. “Love is sweet, but duty lasts forever.”

“Spoken like a king,” Julia said with approval. “I love Caenis, but... there is too much to do. I feel a duty to the people of this land too, husband. I want to make sure women have more freedom than I ever enjoyed in Lyce. And once his ambitions are fulfilled, my brother will reform Lyce for the better; that’s why I support him now, besides our family ties. Maybe your mother will see him repeal the werewolf laws in her lifetime.”

“Mother would love it,” Kairos agreed. In the deepest recesses of her heart, Aurelia had never given up on returning to her homeland one day.

Julia caressed her belly. “I hope our child and their half-sibling will get along. In this treacherous world of ours, you can only truly count on family.”

Kairos put his arms around her shoulder, allowing Julia to rest her head against his chest. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For Romulus,” Kairos whispered, his wife tensing up. “He is family. I can feel it in my bones, and that’s the only thing that makes sense. But, I swear to you… he’ll never touch you again.”

Julia looked away at the frozen window. “Did I ever tell you why I learned how to swing a sword?”

“Because you wanted to defend yourself?”

“Yes,” she whispered back. “Lycean noblewomen are expected to rely on their family and male parents for protection, but I always hated feeling helpless. I wanted a way to assert myself, and where words failed, swords worked.”

“Is that why you went alone to scout Teuta’s territory?” Though he tried to sound supportive, Kairos couldn’t suppress his scolding tone. “You didn’t just endanger yourself.”

“That was foolish, I know; I have no excuses. I wanted to feel the thrill of freedom one last time before being forced to spend the next few months at home.” Julia’s expression twisted into a frown. “I think jealousy played a part too.”

“Jealousy for Andromache?”

She raised an eyebrow. “How did you guess?”

“Because I’m starting to know you.” And because he had a similar discussion with Andromache in Vali. The two women contrasted like light and day on some points, but resembled one another closely on others.

Julia couldn’t help but smile, though it looked bittersweet. “I was jealous of your nymph. I still am. Even when she suffered from her curse, she had enough power to do what she wanted. She can blast anyone who dares to threaten her with flames and lightning, while I could only beg for Romulus’ mercy.”

“You couldn’t have done anything else.”

“And that’s the problem, husband. I want to have options. I feel grateful for your offer to slay Romulus for me, but… I want the ability to defend myself, and our child too. What happens if someone comes for us, and you’re not here?”

“I’ll help you fulfill your Quest then,” he said while kissing her on the cheek. “Just tell me where to find that [Necklace of Harmonia], and I will put it around your neck myself.”

Julia caressed his lips with her index finger. “You must be the first man to offer a cursed necklace to his wife. Another woman would worry about your intentions.”

“But not you.”

“No,” she said as her hand moved to stroke his hair. “Do you know the necklace’s story?”

“It was made by Hephaestus as a poisoned gift to Aphrodite’s bastard daughter by Ares,” Kairos said, remembering his mother’s stories. “Harmonia passed it down to her daughter Semele, who soon burned giving birth to Dionysus.”

Come to think of it, he should ask Nessus if he had any advice about Julia’s Quest. The old god’s mother died because of the artifact, so he probably understood its inner workings.

“Afterward, it passed on to countless women and ruined each of them,” Kairos recounted. “Queen Jocasta, Eriphyle, Arsinoe… and many more with names forgotten to time. I think it was lost after a time?”

“The tyrant Phyallus offered the necklace to his mistress, only for her son to burn her alive alongside her worldly treasures,” Julia finished the tale. “I had Aglaonice look into what came of it afterward with divinations, and she provided.”

“At least that infuriating sphinx made herself useful.” Kairos could barely stand her presence.

“I have grown fond of her. She is treacherous and untrustworthy, but amusing.” Julia chuckled to herself, as if laughing at a private joke. “The last victim’s son recovered from his madness once the flames consumed his family, and his sin brought him great guilt. For the crime of murdering his own mother, the Furies hounded him relentlessly. The poor wretch sought atonement, and decided to ask his mother’s soul for forgiveness by performing the [Nekyia] ceremony.”

Kairos knew of that ritual all too well. Cassandra performed it in Achlys to help lift the undead curse that plagued the Argo. Since the events Julia narrated happened before the Anthropomachia, there was only one place where Nekyia could have been performed.

“He went to the Necromanteion,” Kairos guessed.

Julia confirmed with a slow nod. “The temple’s anti-divination wards prevented Aglaonice from figuring out what happened inside the dungeon… but when our man left it, he no longer carried the necklace and the Furies let him rebuild his life.”

Kairos immediately figured out the sequence of events. “He performed the ritual, received absolution from his mother’s soul, and left the [Necklace of Harmonia] behind in the dungeon so it wouldn’t harm anyone else ever again.”

“I thought as much, husband. Which is why I spent the last few weeks supervising forays into the Necromanteion from afar. I would have hunted it myself if I could, but…” She looked at her belly. “Our child takes higher priority.”

Nessus’ rivalry with Thanatos, Kairos’ Quest, Julia’s necklace, Andromache’s grudge against Circe, and the calamity prophesied by Prometheus… they all led to the Necromanteion. Too many coincidences. Kairos saw Fate’s hand at work, weaving the threads of destiny towards a single conflict.

“I will recover it for you,” he promised.

His wife smiled, undaunted by the necklace’s dangerous reputation. “I pondered what you said to me, husband, when I questioned if finding the necklace was worth the hassle. You pointed out that the curse could be lifted.”

“I still think it can.” If Orgonos could unmake a curse crafted by the goddess of hexes, then Hephaestus' trap could be disabled. “Quests’ summaries can be misleading and we learned that to our cost in Achlys. Maybe finding the necklace is only half the journey, and you will need to purify it afterward.”

“I hope I won’t have to burn our house for that though.”

Julia’s hand moved to their bed table, opening a small compartment and bringing out a pair of scrolls. She opened them while still resting against Kairos’ chest, letting him see the contents.

Maps.

He immediately recognized the first scroll as a detailed plan of the Necromanteion’s first floor, which he and a small party had already explored. The second map however represented some kind of underground lake, fueled by a river and with four major islands. Two more waterways led to an enormous, mostly uncharted blackspot to the left.

“I sent cartographers alongside adventurers to explore the dungeon,” Julia explained. “The second level is only accessible by boats or swimming, as it is linked to the first level by an underground river. Considering it is linked to the lava and ice rivers outside the temple, we can assume it is the infamous Acheron.”

Kairos couldn’t help but chuckle. His return only distracted his wife for a few hours before she decided to jump back to business. “What’s the size ratio between the two maps?” he asked her.

Julia pointed at the smallest island on the upper left corner of the map. “This one is as large as all of level one,” she explained, before pointing at a larger landmass closer to the center. “And this one was big enough to establish an outpost.”

So the second level was over ten times larger than the previous floor, and there were two more to go according to Aglaonice. “Adventurers progressed far,” he observed. “How many answered the call?”

“Hundreds,” Julia replied. “Most are warriors from Travia eager to win a [Legend] and fortune like you did. You inspired many of your citizens, and even people from Lyce.”

That was all Kairos ever hoped for. To show the Travian people that it could rise to something higher than piss-poor pirates struggling for survival. And yet… “Did you check their backgrounds? Some of them could be spies.”

Julia squinted at him in silent disapproval.

“[Spymaster]?” Kairos deadpanned.

“I smelled a few rats sent by Teuta and Mithridates,” his wife replied. “They’re sleeping with the fishes in the ocean. You can interrogate them with your ship if you want.”

“I will take you at your word.”

“Our trustworthy and vetted adventurers killed a guardian monster here,” Julia explained by pointing at a rightmost island, “but our outpost struggles with undead attacks. They robbed many tombs and gathered many treasures, but found no trace of the necklace… nor of a pathway to the third level.”

“Why is the black spot to the left uncharted?” Kairos asked. While the rest of the map was particularly detailed, this part of the floor remained dark and blurry.

“Because all those who enter it suffer from an eternal [Sleep] effect; one that we haven't been able to lift from the victims yet. Anyone who approaches the area falls into a deep slumber without fail. As an automaton, Thales is immune to the ailment and he managed to bring back survivors to safety. They are waiting at the hospital.”

Kairos considered it likely that the path to the third level awaited somewhere in this area, but bypassing the effect would prove difficult. “Did Thales explore the area further?” he asked Julia.

“He offered to, but I put down my veto. He might be a [Hero] now, but direct combat isn’t his main strength.” Kairos couldn’t argue with his wife’s point. “Instead, he offered to build more automatons to escort him.”

“He can do that now?” Kairos asked, suddenly interested. He knew that reproduction was Thales’ dream, his Quest.

“He hasn’t found a way to imbue his creations with a soul, but he discovered how to create mindless automated machines.” Julia gave her husband a coy look. “Didn’t you gain a new crafting Skill?”

“I did,” he replied with a smirk. He could already see the possibilities.

“Thales brought back some samples of the water from around this area,” Julia explained. “Early tests show that it erases the short-term memories of those who drink it.”

“The river Lethe,” Kairos guessed and connected the dots. “There was a god who made his lair near the river’s source.”

“Hypnos, the late god of sleep,” Julia confirmed. “From what we gathered, we can assume the waterways lead to his old lair, the Cave of Sleep.”

“I thought he was gone though?” According to the late Rhadamanthe’s tales, Hypnos and the deities of dreams were all subsumed by a new god during the Anthropomachia. This deity, Murmur, was among the most elusive of the Sunsea’s deities. The only proof of its existence was the fact it empowered priests and punished those who harmed its cults with deadly nightmares.

However, now that he had learned more about deities, Kairos started to doubt this story. Hypnos was a brother of Thanatos, an aspect of the world and the [Sleep] ailment. As a personification of the Fate System, his [Legend] shouldn’t have been stolen.

Could he still be alive?

“Whether Hypnos survived or not, his power remains,” Julia replied as she set aside the maps. “I sent a message to Thales, recalling him to Histria. I know you want to attack the dungeon now, husband, but I suggest you take longer to prepare. It is possible you might encounter a point of no return during your descent, with no possibility of further reinforcements.”

Kairos couldn’t deny the possibility, no. Especially since Thanatos was aware of their forays. If the ancient Protogenoi was half as cunning as Nessus made him out to be, he would have prepared additional obstacles to prevent his foes from reaching the bottom.

In fact… Nessus had been part of Kairos’ party during the first foray. There was no way Thanatos didn’t recognize his reincarnated foe. The satyr would be targeted the moment he set foot again in the Necromanteion.

“How large is the outpost you established?” Kairos asked.

“Large enough to accommodate a regiment,” Julia replied with pride. “I also set enough supplies for you to last weeks.”

“You anticipated everything,” he noted with a smirk.

“Like it or not, I am my brother’s sister, Kairos of Travia. I always try to hedge my bets. The sleep barrier is an obstacle for now, but otherwise I did my best to prepare the terrain for you.”

And he loved her for it.

As for the sleep barrier, Kairos’ new [Telchine] crafting skills allowed him to create items worthy of [Heroes]. He had focused his efforts on creating legendary weapons for his followers, but with Andromache and Thales’ expertise at his back, he didn’t doubt that he could create keys for the Cave of Sleep.

It was time to craft.

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