CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE

Chimera, Part 2

Medea, Princess of Colchis, niece of Circe, kin slayer, and first wife of Jason, who, after he abandoned her for another, murdered her own children in retribution. It was one of the ancient world’s most well-known tales of betrayal and tragedy, meaning hers was such a big fat lie that Sam could only gape at the ghoulish woman’s claim.

“M-Medea?” he blurted. “That can’t be true...it would make you more than two thousand years old!”

“Two-Thousand-seven-hundred-and...” Medea’s face turned contemplative for a moment. “You know, I’ve mostly forgotten that last number.”

She flashed a smile at Sam, one that wouldn’t have been uncommon at a red-carpet premiere. Assuming the premiering film was a horror movie, of course.

“Let’s just say I’m thirty...I do look thirty, don’t I,” she chuckled.

“More like forty-five,” Farsight chimed in.

She and Thunder bumped fists, causing Medea’s smile to turn upside down.

Medea sighed. “Children these days have so little respect for their elders... It almost makes me glad I murdered mine.”

“Seriously, you really expect us to believe you’re THE Medea?” Thunder challenged.

“It matters little whether you believe... I care not.” Medea placed a hand on Pandora the 8th’s shoulder. “You may begin, my dear.”

Sam couldn’t help asking, “Begin what?” but then he saw Pandora the 8th’s fingers on her pithos’ bronze cap, and his hand immediately moved toward his hammer’s pommel.

“Don’t—”

But it was too late. Pandora the 8th opened her ‘box’—and the greatest evils of the world didn’t come out as Sam feared. No, something stranger occurred. A powerful gravitational force began to pull things into the dark hole that was the pithos’ mouth, sucking in its surroundings—even the light of the will-o’-wisps in the air. This included the hound whose essence began to unravel as it got sucked into the vacuum unleashed by Pandora’s Box.

Sam felt his feet get dragged forward like he too was being drawn by the gravitational force emanating from that dark power. In a panic, he drew Gram from its makeshift holster and then stabbed the marble floor with it, embedding the blade deep into the ground to anchor himself to the spot.

“Good thinking,” Jackboot said, as he, Thunder, Farsight, and even Dr. Hearthstone grabbed onto Sam to prevent themselves from being pulled into Pandora’s Box as well.

“It’s not enough,” Thunder warned. “The pull’s too strong!”

“Don’t worry,” Farsight replied. “I’ve got this.”

With Dr. Hearthstone holding onto her, Farsight shot a forked arrow toward the pillar on their left, and then another to the pillar to their right. The thick frost-spider silk cables attached to each arrow pulled taut as Farsight wrapped them around the sword’s pommel, strengthening her team’s resistance to the pull of Pandora’s Box.

“Hold on!” she ordered.

They held onto each other and weathered the gravity storm while watching in shock as the hound’s body grew smaller and smaller until it was fully sucked into Medea’s pithos. Nothing remained of it. Not even a core that should have been a guaranteed drop from such a powerful horror.

No, that wasn’t exactly true because treasure did clatter to the ground after the hound vanished into Pandora’s Box. Only then did the tan-skinned girl shut its bronze lid, and all went deathly silent except for the sound made by the glowing coin rolling around on the marble floor.

There was nothing overly special about its design. It was typically round-shaped, larger than a dollar, and made of silver. Yet it glowed with an ethereal light that shone like a twinkling star.

“Godsdamn, that’s a Norn Coin,” Farsight realized.

“You are well-informed,” Medea said as she knelt to pick up the coin.

“What’s a Norn Coin doing here?” Farsight asked.

“It was part of the museum exhibit... One of their biggest attractions,” Thunder answered.

“Your Legends of Liberty stole them from the Fuhrer’s treasure vault after the war… In their fear of these powerful relics, the so-called heroes scattered the Norn Coins across the globe, one for each continent to watch over,” Medea explained.

The gaunt woman juggled the coin between long fingers.

“Do you know why they were so afraid of such tiny things?” she asked.

“Whoever controls the coins can change fate, or so I’ve heard,” Farsight answered.

“That’s if they’re all together. Although even alone, a Norn Coin enhances the power of a gifted so that they could even rise in rank while it remains in their possession,” Medea explained.

“S-seriously?” Sam asked.

It was the first time he’d heard of any relic having an ability similar to Triple-A’s system.

“So this relic was the reason this place is so insane... The coin was empowering Rick,” Thunder guessed.

“Yes, even deranged, the horror was drawn to the Norn Coin. And like an animal without thought, it ate the relic, imbibing its magic into itself, strengthening it so greatly its madness warped the space around us so very thoroughly,” Medea answered.

“Is that why you want it?” Thunder asked.

“I am an immortal sorceress who trained under Hecate herself, my dear. I do not need this bauble to give me strength.” Medea placed the coin between her thumb and forefinger and then raised her hand so that Sam and his friends could see what was on its metal surface. “No, this relic contains another secret...one I believe you’ll find interesting.”

There were words carved into the coin’s metallic surface. He couldn’t quite make out what they were as Medea was quick to flip the coin over, but Sam noticed how they were written in English, which meant the sorceress was now in possession of the next clue to the Golden Fleece.

“Is that what you were looking for?” Dr. Hearthstone asked in an undertone.

“Yes,” Sam answered. “And we’re screwed if we don’t get that coin from her...”

“Let’s hold off on the punching, boys,” Farsight encouraged. “This is a perfect opportunity to find out more about this Chimera.”

“You think she’ll just spill the beans like that?” Thunder asked, also in an undertone.

“Just look at her,” Farsight whispered. “That smug smile...I bet she’s just dying to tell us about their evil plans.”

Getting her team to agree to hold off on fighting was easy enough, but getting Medea to talk was even easier. All Farsight had to do was step forward and ask, and the sorceress was more than willing to share Chimera’s goals with the team.

“To bring order out of chaos and free mankind from the tyranny of the gods, this is the reason for Chimera’s existence,” she stated proudly.

“Seriously?” Sam asked, his eyebrow twitching upward. “That sounds so...”

“Reasonable?” Thunder supplied.

“Not evil,” was what Sam was thinking, but he didn’t say that out loud. He could understand why there were people who didn’t appreciate the gods, fickle as they were.

“A part of you agrees with us,” Medea guessed, her gaze fixed on Sam. “I see it on your face...you too have felt the burden of a god’s indifference...their bias…their malice.”

“I...” Sam wasn’t sure what to say, but he couldn’t downright refute what the sorceress had just said.

A memory flashed unbidden across his mind, a young girl looking worriedly back at a young Sam while a goddess’s priestesses gazed at her with desire apparent in their faces. Even now, Sam could still hear his mother’s screams as they took his sister away. Never to be heard from again—just another sacrifice to the whim of the gods.

“The gods are a cruel, selfish lot, Sammy,” his mother had said. “All they do is take from us...”

It was the last thing she’d said to him before she succumbed to the horror of her emotions. The memory of his mother’s transformation and that night which saw the end of Sam’s childhood was what kept him from speaking against Medea’s logic.

“And how does the Golden Fleece fit in with your righteous plans?” Farsight asked.

Medea’s chilling gaze moved over to her next. “The Golden Fleece will awaken the cleansing fire that will roll over Mother Earth and usher in the twilight of the gods.”

“But the fleece can only heal... It has no power to destroy,” Thunder argued.

“Exactly,” Medea smiled.

What does that mean? Sam wondered. Did Medea want to heal something?

“And how many people will die for this cause?” Thunder pressed.

“There will always be a great number of sacrifices made in the name of the greater good,” Medusa answered.

Dr. Hearthstone stepped forward with his arms up, muscles bulging, fists tense and ready for a fight.

“It’s not the goal, but the way you go about achieving it that determines whether you’re good or evil,” he said.

“Clearly, you’ve never heard that the ends justify the means,” Medea replied.

“The ends never justify the means,” Dr. Hearthstone fired back. “There’s always a better way.”

“Perhaps...” Medea raised her free hand high. “But I believe my way is easier.”

She snapped her fingers with a flourish, and as if in response, there came two mighty roars from high above.

Sam looked up and immediately wished he hadn’t.

“I knew I’d forgotten something,” he sighed. “The lore always said Medea had dragon steeds...”